File:The American garden (1891) (17963449399).jpg

Title: The American garden
Identifier: americangarden121891broo (find matches)
Year: 1873 (1870s)
Authors:
Subjects: Horticulture; Gardening
Publisher: Brooklyn, N. Y. : (s. n. )
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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746 THE FORCING OF ENGLISH CUCUMBERS. larger supply at any given time. Care must be taken not to allow the heavy fruits to pull the vines off the support, and those which do not hang free should be held up in slings, for if allowed to lie on the soil they do not color evenly. This swinging also appears to exert some influence upon the shape of the fruit. Varieties.—There are many good varieties of Eng- lish cucumbers. We have grown Sion House most, and for general purposes prefer it. It is of medium length, averaging a foot or fourteen inches when fully mature, smooth and regular. It would probably sell better than the larger sorts in markets which are unac- customed to the large English varieties. Telegraph is also a favorite variety. It is a smooth, slender and very attain their complete growth, although they remain edi- ble for some time after they have reached maturity. Pollination.—In cucumber-growing out-doors, the pollen is carried from staminate to pistillate flowers by insects, but pollen-carrying insects are absent from the greenhouse. If the flowers are fertilized in the house, therefore, the pollen must be carried by hand. There is a question, however, if pollination is advisable in the house, for the English cucumber will grow to perfection without seeds and entirely without the aid of pollen. We have made several unsuccessful efforts to grow Medium Green (Nichols Medium Green) in the house without pollination. White Spine sets without pollen, apparently. Many gardeners suppose that pol
Text Appearing After Image:
View in Cucumber House. handsome fruit, ordinarily attaining a length of eighteen or twenty inches. Kenyon (Lord Kenyon's Favorite) is also an excellent smooth, slender sort, of medium length. Edinburgh (Duke of Edinburgh) is a spiny and some, what furrowed variety, attaining a length of twenty to twenty-four inches. We prefer others. Lorne (Marquis of Lorne) is one of the best of the very large sorts. The flavor of English cucumbers is somewhat different from that of the common field sorts, the texture being, as a rule, somewhat less breaking. But this is not an evidence of poor quality ; it is simply a different quality, and evidently belongs to these fruits as a class. The English sorts retain their green color longer than the field varieties. They are ordinarily picked before they len causes the fruit to grow large at the end, and they therefore aim to produce seedless cucumbers for the double purpose of saving labor and of procuring straighter and more shapely fruit. We have found that it pays to pollinate by hand, if early fruits are de- sired. The early flowers nearly always fail to set if pollen is withheld, but late flowers upon tl^ same plant may set freely with no pollen. Enemies.—The most serious enemy with which we^ have had to contend in cucumber forcing is the spotted mite, which feeds upon the under surface of the leaves, destroying the green tissue. We keep it in check by the use of Hughes' fir-tree oil, one-half pint to two gallons of water, applied with a fine syringe or knapsack pump.

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