To say my yellow lemon cucs have taken off is an understatement. I swear I can hear them growing right now. Four weeks old and they are 4 feet tall with big yellow flowers *everywhere.* They're putting out gigantic leaves, too. Apparently they love the hot weather in SoCal.
So I have them in a pot, staked with bamboo poles. They hate the trellis and won't wrap their tendrils around the square wood. So my question is, how tall will these guys get? I may have a problem here real soon. Another foot and they'll tower above the stakes. At this rate that will be about one week.
Do you top them? I am not sure what I can do about getting something tall enough to support them.
1) An appropriate length of wide-mesh wire fabric such as field fencing or concrete reinforcing wire bent into a cylindrical tower or "cage" around the plant. You can gain additional height by cutting the wire so that it will sit atop the container or;
2) Arrange stakes around the perimeter of the container and join the stakes with any kind of "small stuff" (twine) such as cotton "kitchen" twine, jute, seine twine etc. Although, labor intensive, with a little planning and care this device is reusable.
Although, cucurbits detest being manhandled, if addressed daily and fairly early in the day before new growth has a good grip, the vine may be guided around the circumference/perimeter, greatly increasing growing space. Although this may make fruit hard to spot it may easily be harvested provided that the wire fabric is coarse enough (most fencing and reinforcing wire is 5"-6" mesh) or the twine is adequately spaced. If your vines are rejecting your bamboo stakes I suspect that they are objecting to some sort of chemical coating or preservative product used in/on them. I use bamboo harvested from my yard as trellis stakes AWA for dragonfly perches with no sign of rejection by cucurbits, "English" garden peas, cowpeas, or lima beans. FWIW: The above-described cages work very well with sprawling indeterminate tomatoes whether container or bed grown. Makes harvesting, bottom pruning, and re-dressing the vines snap-bean easy and a big plus is that the wire discourages marauding birds. If you use seine twine, typically Dacron, try to find the "bonded" product; it is treated so as not to untwist when cut.
I'm looking at getting a dozen feet of the concete screen. The vines are 3 inches taller today. Amazing gowth rate. Looks like I will have a bumper crop of cucs.
Yep. Cucumbers, squash and pumpkins can be frightening ;-)
Don't want to presume, but you do know that only about a third of the blossoms will be cucumbers? If you do, read no further....
Cucs are dioecious: Male and female blossoms on same plant. The female blossom's ovary becomes the fruit that we eat and, on close examination, is clearly visible as an enlargement of the stem the looks like, well, a tiny cucumber at the blossom's base. The majority of blossoms, though, are so-called "false" blossoms that don't fruit; these are the stamenate "male" pollenizers. Same goes for all curcurbits. Squash and pumpkin blossoms are edible but don't overdo it.... You can assure a heavy crop by hand-pollenating early in the day after dew has dried but before the blossoms wilt but it usually isn't necessary unless daytime temperatures are high enough to suppress insect activity. Bees, including many native solitary bees but particularly imported honeybees, are especially sensitive to high temperatures and above 90° the few that remain active begin carrying water instead of nectar.
Mine are in a pot and I have them growing up deer netting around my patio under my deck. I've reinforced the netting with a little cord. They're growing well.
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