Giant Cucumbers. What to do?

Have you ever been surprised with a huge behemoth of a cucumber that wasn't there two
days ago? What do you do with huge cukes? Does the flavor change as they get so large?

Super large cucumbers are often hard to transform into crispy pickle spears and are often quite seedy. However, they still have so much potential!

Here are some harvesting tips:

• Don’t let cucumbers get too large or they will taste bitter.
• Hot dry weather can cause bitter cucumbers. Monitor your watering.
• At peak harvesting time, you should be picking cucumbers every couple of days. They’ll grow quickly!
• Harvest regular slicing cucumbers when they about 6 to 8 inches long (slicing varieties).
• Harvest dills at 4 to 6 inches long and pickles at 2 inches long for pickles.
• The large burpless cucumbers can be up to 10 inches long and some types are even larger.
• Cucumbers are best picked before their seeds become hard and are eaten when immature. Do not let them get yellow. A cucumber is of highest quality when it is uniformly green, firm, and crisp.
• Any cucumbers left on the vine too long will also get-tough skins and lower plant productivity.

Here is an easy Sweet Pickle Relish

Ingredients:
· 3 pounds Pickling Cucumbers or 4 pounds of Large Cucumbers
· 1 Large Sweet Onion
· ¼ cup Pickling or Kosher Salt
· 3 cups White Vinegar
· ¾ cup Sugar
· 4 cloves Garlic Minced
· 2 teaspoons Dill Seed
· 2 teaspoons Mustard Seed
· 2 teaspoons Celery Seed
· ½ teaspoon Turmeric

Instructions:
1. Slice the cucumber lengthwise and remove the seeds with a spoon. Discard the seeds.
2. Finely dice the cucumber and onion.
3. Place diced cucumbers and onions in a non-reactive pot
and add the salt. Stir and let sit for 2 hours.
4. Drain cucumber and onion mixture in a strainer until all the liquid is removed. You may have to press the mixture against the strainer to remove hidden moisture.
5. In a medium pot add vinegar, sugar, garlic, dill, celery, and mustard seed, and turmeric. Bring to a boil.
6. Add cucumber and onion mixture and return to a boil.
7. Reduce heat to medium low and simmer for 10 minutes.
8. Remove from heat.
9. Cool and store in refrigerator for up to a month or process in water bath for 10 minutes.

Why do we have so many earwigs this year?

Why do we have so many earwigs this year? Haven't we heard this every year? Well for one thing it has been a wet and slightly warmer spring. These weather conditions have made better than ideal living and growing media for the earwig. They like wet damp hiding places and with a little mulch or loose compost to hide in during the day.

How to identify good earwigs from bad earwigs.
They are all the same so to speak. They are opportunistic eaters. They live on dead decaying matter, eat aphids and other small prey and love young growth of certain plants, like Marigolds. This is shown in the picture with all the cans full of earwigs and decimated marigold plants. The shallow cans were placed next to plants that the earwigs thought were the most tasty.
Simple home remedies can be used to lower the earwigs population.  There are quite a few methods you can use depending on your preference and patience. I prefer a little beer in a small cat food can but there other preparations you can put in the cans. Since they prowl at night, they hide during the day. Place burlap bags, boards, newspapers or other materials on the ground, then daily collect individuals that congregate under the cover and discard.

Predatory insects help control the earwigs. Believe it or not, there are other insects and animals that prey on the earwigs. Since the earwigs are nocturnal, hungry birds have to hunt them out in their hiding places during the day. Evening birds and amphibians will be able to find them out and about in the duff on their favorite plants. Knowing the life cycle will help you manage earwigs!

 

Bindweed - Beauty or Pest?

(Convolvulus arvensis, origins from Eurasia)

Field Bindweed likes nooks and crannies and wraps around plants as it reaches upward on taller plants.  A perennial broadleaf with creeping and twining stems, it is considered a noxious weed and one of the hardest to control.

Often mistakenly called Creeping Jenny or wild morning glory, it reproduces from seed and creeping underground rhizomes (underground stems) that can reach deeper than 20 feet but 70% of its root mass is in the top 2 feet of soil. Flowers are a pretty pink to white with arrowhead shaped leaves. Unfortunately any time a root is cut, it creates more roots and then leaves and blooms. Field bindweed likes disturbed soils. If a field bindweed plant should appear: 1. Remove seedlings as soon as they emerge. 2. Remove plants before they flower. 3. Remove flowering plants before they set seed...and keep cultivating as new plants emerge!

Control methods:

Cultural- Growing bunch grass or legumes to help choke it out or other tall shade producing plants assists control.  Mechanical control is cultivation every three weeks for 2 years during the growing season. Clear plastic is recommended, known as soil sterilization or fabric weed barrier can help by keeping from sunlight.

Biological- The bindweed mite, Aceria malherbae, is a microscopic mite that feeds on field bindweed. This process is being tried but takes years to see results. 

Chemical- Fall is the best time of year to control it as it moves the herbicides into the roots. Some are: 2,4-D for lawns but for long term, systemic herbicides can be used such as dicamba and picloram, glyphosates are a couple that work better in fields and pastures. It is important to read and follow all precautions before applying any of these herbicides. But if you wait until fall, it has already gone to seed and spread all over. Treat it as soon as you see it.

Idaho Weed Awareness has an excellent list of all noxious weeds for Idaho - check it out along with Field Bindweed.

Grow a Tea Garden for Year-Round Tea

During the heat of summer, we dream of crisp fall evenings with a steaming mug of home-grown tea, made from the dried leaves and buds of some of the season’s most beautiful floral displays. With a little know-how and pre-planning, growing a tea garden can enable you to make your own blend of tea year-round. Here are some wonderful tea options and tips for growing them properly:

Lavender (Lavendula angustifolia): (Buds are used for tea.) Lavender is fairly simple to care for, can provide a beautiful addition to your landscape, and attract beneficial pollinators. English lavender is cold hard to Zone 5, can bloom twice in a single season, and is considered drought tolerant. Preferring full sun and alkaline soils, lavender needs to be pruned annually after the plant has been established. The plants have very few pests or disease problems. However, they can be susceptible to soil diseases such as Phytophthora, so it is important to water carefully and not create standing water around the plant. Harvest the flowers and buds for drying when they are one-third to fully open and hang them in a cool, airy, shaded room. To make a relaxing lavender tea, combine hot water with fresh or dried buds, then steep until you reach your desired flavor. For a bit of sweetness, add a few drops of honey.

Mint (Mentha sp.): (Leaves are used for tea.) There are several mint varieties to choose from, each providing a unique flavor to brewed tea. Spearmint makes a soothing tea, while peppermint makes a sweeter tea. A visit to a local nursery will likely present you with choices like apple mint, chocolate mint, and orange mint. A very hardy, prolific plant, mint can quickly take over surrounding garden and landscape areas. To keep this eager spreader under control, try growing it in containers or confining it to a bed with metal or plastic edging. Harvest the leaves and dry them in summer, then steep dried leaves for tea year-round. Iced mint tea can be very refreshing during hot months, and warm mint tea is soothing in fall and winter.

Calendula: (Petals are used for tea.) A member of the daisy family, these beautiful yellow and orange flowers add long-lasting color to any flower bed or container. Their frost tolerance, somewhat cold, hardy nature, and propensity to draw aphids away from other garden plants make them great companion plants for many of those well-loved vegetables growing nearby. Simply pour hot water over the dried flowers and let steep to your desired flavor intensity.

Lemon balm ((Melissa officinalis): (Leaves are used for tea.) Adding a lovely, gentle lemon flavor, lemon balm is an easy-to-grow perennial, that tolerates full sun to partial shade and produces delicate white, pale yellow, or pink flowers. Though, if you are interested in controlling this prolific plant, pruning to ensure that it does not set and drop seed is key. Combined with other dried ingredients, including oat straw, rose hip, orange peel, and lavender, a cup of lemon balm tea can lift the mood on a cloudy, rainy fall day.

Chamomile (Chamaemelum nobile): (Buds are used for tea.) From June to August, the tiny, delicate daisies of chamomile are a wonderful perennial addition to any garden scape. Hardy to Zone 3, and loving light, dry soil, chamomile is fairly easy to grow. Two of the most common chamomiles used for tea are German chamomile (Matricaria recutita) and Roman chamomile (Chamaemelum nobile). Fresh chamomile buds can be combined with boiling water, apple slices, and a bit of honey for a calming, warm hug on those crisp fall evenings.

For educational purposes only. This information has not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration.