Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with cucumbers

I ♥ cukes.

halogen — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 15:36:48 -0800

Seattle indoor gardening: are there any reasons why I shouldn't grow cucumbers in my bedroom this winter? I just moved to an apartment with a large-ish balcony, and can't wait to acquire some planters with herbs and vegetables. However, considering that winter hasn't even started yet, they wouldn't get much of a survival chance outside.

My bedroom has floor-to-ceiling, wall-to-wall windows that face West. No-one spends time there during the day. The temperature is usually at 65°F/18°C during the day and overnight and 69°F/20°F in the evening when we are home. I've been thinking of picking up a couple of Earthboxes and then planting Persian cucumber seeds in them (as well as some herbs). Then, in the spring, I would presumably be setting the planters outside on the balcony and growing, well, whatever.

Potential problems that I can picture are raised humidity in the bedroom (which should be fine, my skin could certainly benefit from it) and the plants being too cold.

Have you attempted anything like this? Could I count on a harvest in a couple of months?

I promise to relish your recipes... (rolls drum)

Mastercheddaar — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 06:05:23 -0800

Planning on harvesting my cucumbers and I need the hive mind for relish recipes. Aside from about 10 good sized cucumbers I also have more Hungarian hot peppers than I know what to do with. I was thinking about turning it all into relish. Some dill, some sweet, maybe some hot? Thank you all in advance... Any ideas are welcome.

Inch by inch, row by row, gonna let these mutants grow.

Mayor Curley — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 18:09:46 -0800

So for the second year in a row, our cucumbers have grown spherical, small and nasty. We would prefer traditionally-shaped cucumbers that are not essentially bitter balls of seeds. No good cukes this year (I think we got a few normal ones last summer). Any ideas why this is happening? I'm not sure what information to give. Ask me questions. The plants were all of the pickling cucumber variety. The garden is just outside Boston, Massachusetts, USA.

Cucumber woes

chundo — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 13:13:19 -0800

Cucumber woes - why are my baby cucumbers falling off without maturing? My six cucumber plants have exploded with blossoms and I've got about 20 baby cucumbers starting (about an inch long). Today I noticed that several of them are shriveling and falling off. The exact same thing happened last year, when I got a grand total of 1 small cucumber from 4 plants.

The plants are very healthy aside from this, there are no signs of bugs or disease. There is never any shortage of blossoms or baby cucumbers, but they just never mature before wilting and dying. What am I doing wrong?

Why a wrapped cuke?

Robot Johnny — Thu, 05 Oct 2006 17:06:32 -0800

Why are cucumbers shrink-wrapped at the grocery store, when no other vegetable or produce is similarly wrapped in plastic?

My Garden Runneth Over

thewhynotgirl — Tue, 23 Aug 2005 09:26:10 -0800

Anything you can do with fresh cucumbers so you can enjoy them weeks or months later? So, this year I finally have a rocking vegetable garden with the three things we like most: cucumbers, tomatoes (grape and regular) and bell peppers. I'm not a canner, so I'm just freezing the tomatoes whole to plop into stews, chili, etc in the future. I'm welcome to more suggestions than these 'red rocks' however.

My main problem is what to do with the cucumbers -- they're huge and prolific and it has been my understanding that water-based veggies don't freeze well. Any suggestions on what to do with them short of giving them all away?

Note: Suggestions gotta be on the simple side; the reason I don't do canning is cuz I don't have the patience for all that work, and don't really care to cultivate any (unless of course there's just no other option :( ).

Thanks in advance!