Nodines landrace crop notes 2024

Holder for 2024 notes.

I’ll be creating a cucumber grex this year and continuing my muskmelon selection. Also growing the watermelon mix from gts with the Weeks watermelon from last year. Will try to keep progress tracked here.

My cucumber grow out consist of Joseph’s mostly green pickling cucumber, corinito, salt & pepper, and EFN’s Dual Purpose Pickling Grex.

The muskmelons I’m just continuing selection on.

So far the cucumbers have been heavily infested with cucumber beetles. I’m not sure why there seem to be so many this year. Some plants are faring better than others, and it looks like I’ll have to replace a few of the cucumber plants with replacements. I did not label each individual plant and so will not know which variety they are. Every time I try to start a locally adapted Grex it seems I have huge insect issues. Which I guess makes sense, and I would rather have high insect pressure selecting the best genetics the first year, but I’ve grown cucumbers countless times before, and never had insect pressure like this. Serendipity? Bad Luck? Am I communicating telepathically with the insect world? :man_shrugging:

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Ok, so muskmelons are growing (finally), I direct sowed this year for the first time. Probably at least 100 seeds and most (95%) were immediately eaten and killed by insects. I kept sticking seeds and transplanted a few. Got 14 growing decent now.

The cucumber beetles here have been insane. Literally thousands have been eating everything I plant. Don’t get me wrong, it’s great selection pressure, but holy moly. Luckily I had plenty of seed/transplants.

Cukes are producing well, but most aren’t the plump oval shape I prefer. Hopefully the deer stop eating the tops off, but hell maybe the plants will grow spines or something wild to adapt.

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Any photographs to share?
Im curious to see the cucumbers from this years seed mix. The GTS seed mix included a huge selection of differet varieties and colors. Have you been able to taste them?
Deer sure like gardens! We haven’t had any insect pressure, just my dogs pawing through the fence and breaking off plants.