How To Grow Cucumbers Grow Along, Harvesting And Recipes

We're going to be having a look at harvesting some of our cucumbers today and I'm also talking about having a glut and there will be some recipes at the end of the video to look at using them up as well. Different varieties of cucumbers are always going to take a different amount of time to mature and the ones that we've grown this year have matured that little bit later than the other ones I've previously grown have, so that could be actually to do with the conditions that we've been under this year with how hot it's been because although they are summer loving that doesn't necessarily mean that they're going to enjoy a heat wave, however it could just be that the variety takes that little bit longer and it's normal for these ones. So these aren't ones that I've grown before and the reason I've done that is just to make sure that we can order our seeds from the same place, so the ones that real seeds sell are not any varieties that I've tried before, but these ones I'm happy with and we don't necessarily eat a huge amount. If you are looking for ones that are going to mature that little bit sooner then you may want to look at some all-female varieties and just have a couple of different varieties going as well, that is obviously going to make a difference to saving your seeds. We obviously don't want them to cross-pollinate so you would then need to look at actually pollinating them by hand and isolating them, but what we're doing at the moment is just one variety so then we should be able to save the seeds from them absolutely fine. So this cucumber here is now standing at about four foot so it's actually much smaller than the other one but it is producing better than the one at the other end which is bigger. We have more cucumbers that are coming on this one and we also have plenty of male as well as some female flowers and then further down the bush this is where we have some cucumbers hiding. So this one is ready to go, it may be actually slightly too big, it will depend on the variety and the size you want but all I do to remove mine is twist them. If you'd rather get a knife and just cut them off then that might be easier for you to do that instead and then that's that cucumber done and then I've got another one hiding down here that's a little bit smaller but I am going to harvest this one as well. Doing exactly the same, just giving it a bit of a twist and it will pop off. That's those two off of this plant. This plant at the other end of the tunnel is actually over six foot now so it's just a little bit taller than me and it has actually only produced one cucumber so far and has mainly male flowers on it. There is one or two female flowers coming now but otherwise it's just been putting on a little growth. So this here you can see there's a little bit of damage to the skin, I believe it's just been due to a tool that's been hanging here and rubbing against the skin rather than anything else. There are a few viruses that could do a very similar thing. We want to save seeds, we want to leave the cucumber on the plant and it will go a much more yellow colour. I'm going to do that with this one and then we will have a look at that one in a while as well. When it comes to thinking about the size that we want to harvest them, homegrown cucumbers are always better to harvest smaller rather than larger. It will obviously depend on the variety that you're growing. If you've got one that grows really quite large to the size of supermarket cucumbers then you may be absolutely fine to allow them to get that big. Otherwise we are looking at keeping them that little bit smaller. So this is the size which is absolutely perfect in my opinion for the variety that we're growing and then this one is a little bit too large and I would have ideally got that one a little bit sooner. Hopefully we are not going to find that these are bitter in any way and actually stress to the plant and differences in water and things like that can cause some issues with being bitter. One of the things that you can do is actually cut off some of the blossom end and then rub the two together and it will give a milky substance. Wash that off and then that sometimes reduces some of the bitterness within the cucumber. If they are really nasty then it is just that the plant has been too stressed sadly. If they are only a little bit bitter then you can usually get away with cutting the top off and doing that and then also maybe peeling some of the skin because a lot of the varieties that we grow at home don't actually have the more tender skin that the varieties in supermarkets do. So as soon as they are off the plant the first thing that I'm going to do with these is actually pop them into ice cold water. That's just going to get them cold really quickly and people do definitely have different ways in which that they find is best to store their cucumbers. I find that popping them in some ice cold water then drying them really well and when you're drying them the little tiny knobbles on the cucumbers we can just brush off at that point with our kitchen towel and then once we've done that we can pop them into a bag and then into the fridge but make sure that they are dry first and I find that that keeps them really fresh and really good for us for quite a few weeks. However I have heard many people say that they find that they store better out of the fridge, they are a fruit at the end of the day and just on the side of a cool kitchen. That's something that you might want to play around with. There's a few ways in which we use any gluts of cucumbers. So the first thing that you can do if have way too many is actually chop a few up and leave them around the garden and slugs will usually eat the cucumber before they'll eat your plants. So that's one really handy tip and then I will add a recipe at the end of fridge pickles that we do and then we also do some canning of some hot dog relish as well which is really nice and you can use the cucumbers rather than pickling cucumbers but you do want them to be smaller and not overly grown if possible and then for any that are actually left over after that all we do is chop them up and lay them out on a baking tray so they're not stuck together and we freeze them and then they go into my smoothies throughout the summer or the next summer as well. So you'll usually find that for six months they will keep really good in the freezer and then after that they'll start deteriorating but if you're adding them to a smoothie then they'll usually be absolutely fine. I'm just gonna cut this one up and give it a little bit of a try, this is a new variety to us so I'm quite interested to see if the skin is tender enough not to peel it off which is what they recommend it will be fine for. Yep that's actually really good, definitely a variety that I would be happy to grow again and this one you can see there is a seed forming in the end there but it's still small enough that they're not unpalatable in any way and they're definitely a perfect size for our family that want the smaller cucumbers rather than the really large ones. So the next time that we will be looking at these cucumbers now is actually to look at seed saving so if you're not interested in doing that you're growing an F1 variety then this is the end of this grow along for you. Hopefully any plants that you put in a little bit later in July are starting to pick up now and you will have some additional fruits that little bit later for you too. If you've enjoyed this grow along then please do comment, like, share and save the videos, any interaction that we have with the video is really helpful to help us help other gardeners or people that are new to growing as well so I would really appreciate that input from you.