Please let me know whether I will get in Lalbagh , or any other places in Bangalore. Thanks

Thanks for your inputs. My experience with cucumbers has been good, I would regard. So far, I have harvested about 40 cucumbers (averageing 500 gm in wt) from 6 plants , whose seeds were sown on Dec 1st. Just a few days back, I noticed that the leaves had mosiac patterns, there were patches of copper color spots emerging and the plants stopped flowering. I found out that the plants have been inflicted witht mosaic virus, I sprayed a solution made of garlic ground+chilli + baking soda+cinnamon powder (got inputs from the net). Looks like I need to try out neem oil spray as well. Is it normal for the cucumber plants to stop flowering after 2 months?

I also transplanted a few cucumber plants due to over-crowding and much as I tried to save them, they succumbed to fungal infection; the leaves turned pale , yellow and the plants just wilted.

For gourds: I have ridge gourd and bitter gourd now – they are not prolific yielders like cucumber. Is this fine? They too don’t look too health – leaves are pale, turn yellow fast…

I have two bottle gourd plants which have just started showing male flowers – I see them in bloom early in the morning, when I water the plants. How do you do the pruning? Just cutting the forward growth , or what? Can you explain in detail? Also, when should it be done?

Thanks to GG, we are able to share our experiences…

Regards
Meena K

This is Shashank from Pune.

Here are some of my experiences with cucumbers and Gourds

1. Cucumber:- Germinates in 2-3 days. Growth first few weeks is very fast. I used diluted compost tea. But cucues are very sussesptible to powdery mildew. Once fuiting starts you have to protect fruits form being infected by fruitflys. My experiments with cucus was not very +ve. However I learnt a lot . Other important thing avoid growing gourds and cucumbers close to easch other. Cucumbers attract lot of diseses.

2. Gourds: very hardy and I really enjoyed growing gourds. I planted bottle gourds and was rewarded with fruits. Currently my 2nd batch is just getting transplanted from a seed tray to final position containers. In gourds prunning is important as feamle flowers bear only on laterals. Also as gourds are noght blossming if you don’t have moths in the area better to go for had pollination. hand polination is a fun.

rub the seeds to remove the gel coat & dry for ~2 days on the fridge & they are good to go.

if you want to save many seeds you can do that by following the “tomato seed saving” post by GG

Thanks for the prompt reply. I have planted some gourd seeds – ridge gourd,snake gourd, bottle gourd and promptly forgot where I put what, as I did not note down the details. 50% the seeds germinated in four days, I have to wait and discover now ! I tried transplanting them and they did not respond well. The cucumber seeds I sown have given rise to healthy looking seedlings. I am excited and hope to have lot of fun watching them grow. I don’t have seeds of melon family. Are they available in Lal Bag?

Your blog is indeed a great inspiration for me ! Thanks a ton!

Regards
Meena K

In DoH, they dont sell flower seeds AFAIK. But in lalbagh they sell it all the time. What flowers seeds are you looking for?. May be I can buy and ship it to you?

let me know.
gg

Thanks. I can definitely help you in starting a garden. In your balcony you can grow plants like palak, methi and lettuce and coriander.

Post your questions here…
gg

In the list I mentioned, few of them need to be directly seeded into their final destination and few can be transplanted.

Direct seeding:
* Pumpkin
* Watermelon
* Muskmelon
* Ash gourd
* Ridge gourd
* Bitter gourd
* Bottle gourd
* Cucumber

Transplant:
* Lettuce
* Chilly
* Cabbage
* Tomato
* Brinjal
* Capsicum

However, those in the “Direct seeding” list, can still be grown in small pots and transplanted into their final container without disturbing their roots.
Hope this helps.
gg