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Re: Cucumbers yellow and dieing

Square Foot Gardening List - http://myweb.flinet.com/~gallus/sqft.html

At 08:24 PM 7/5/00 -0500, Doreen said that Debbie's cuke problems were due 
to insufficient pollination.  Agree completely.  Varroa mites and throat 
mites (yes, a mite so teeny it lives comfortably in the throat of a honey 
bee) have wrecked the U.S. wild honey bee population.

Doreen mentioned letting her broccoli go to flower.  I've never done that, 
but this year I let my ornamental kales go and they flowered very 
attractively (yellow) for about 6 *weeks* in February and March.  The bees 
came immediately and stuck around.  I don't recall seeing many honey bees 
that early in the year before.
Clearly it's because not too many plants are in flower then.

For the heck of it, I saved seedpods from the kales.  I bought them as 
plants from my favorite nursery, and at nearly $4 apiece (!), the cost has 
been killing me.  They are probably hybrids, so I'm not counting on them to 
come true from seed.  But to save that kind of cash, it's worth a whirl.

Actually, I just missed the right planting window.  My nursery guy always 
seeds his cabbages and kales for ornamental sales in October around 
Father's day (third weekend in June).

Doreen continued,
>...Other pollinators have filled the gap for home gardens--bumble bees 
>(which must visit each squash flower at least three times to do the work 
>of one visit from a honey bee), wasps, black
>flies and more....

Darn--bad news about the inefficiency of bumble bees.  I have *lots* of 
them hanging around.  In fact, in '96 when I opened the top of my 
Rubbermaid compost bin (the one that looks like a green plastic doghouse), 
out flew several very annoyed bumblers.  They actually chased me across my 
yard and one stung me on the forehead in a kamikaze strafing run.  It was wild!

Doreen also suggested that Deb try planting "gonococcus" cukes next 
season.  The word she's looking for is prolly "gynoecious."  Kinda means 
"all girl."  I'm no expert on gynoecious plants, but I suspect they may 
produce somewhat fewer fruits per plant than nonself-pollinating 
plants.  Still if Debbie is in a real bee-drought situation, gyno may be 
the way to go.

--Janet
[who harvested *one* tomato on July 3, from a nursery-bought plant called 
'Miracle']


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