Green Thumb Season 2 - Ep. 2

After four weeks had passed from the initial planting, things started to take shape a bit. The start of dime sized cucumbers showed up on both plants along with yellow flowers, and there was a reasonably sized jalapeno pepper forming on our most mature pepper plant. The weather has gotten very hot in the Mid-Atlantic US. It feels like summer without it being the end of June and with the strong sun we've had to nearly double down on the watering that's done on a daily basis. Thankfully due to our very different schedules we're able to put two watering sessions in (morning and afternoon) on the cucumber plants during the rain free, 90+ degree days, that have been showing up lately. Another thing learned is what the cucumber plants look like when they're in need of water; their leaves slump over when they're running low and the more tacoed leaves visible the worse water is needed. Thankfully we only had one really close call on a day that hit 100*. I woke up at 1:30pm to see both cucumber plants in bad shape, then proceeded to pour about 2 litres of cool water on both. They bounced back within 30 minutes as they are quick drinkers as well. The peppers have been perky regardless of heat, and it makes sense as cucumbers have such a high water content. This worries me for when they get even bigger, as they're not even the size of baby carrots currently. We'll be gone for a good bit of July, give or take the hottest month of the year, so I'm trying to figure out some type of small irrigation system that can operate independently for several days; heavy rain and storms will be icing on the cake.

Week 4:

Week 5:



As you can see the cucumber plants have started growing in their own directions and not all of the peppers have started flowering. The cucumbers have these coil like tentacles that grow along with the stems/leaves which wrap themselves around whatever they touch. After about 4-5 days I have to readjust both plants so they don't grab onto the pepper plants or each other. It's becoming clear how they will look in another month of growth. According to the stats, Bush Crop cucumbers mature in around 90 days. It'll be about 70 days in when we return from overseas.