by A.J. Coltrane
The Lemon cucumbers are really starting to ripen. As for the Marketmores, we must have missed these monsters over the weekend:
(Left to Right): Six Lemon cucumbers (2.3 lbs); The two of the four cherry tomatoes that didn’t get eaten before Picture Time; Three Marketmore 76 cucumbers (3.1 lbs); One National Pickling cucumber (0.7 lbs). 6.2 pounds total.
The big cucumber weighs just under 1.5 pounds. It was lying sideways on the wood trellis, hiding behind a leaf. I’m hoping that we can peel it and most of it will be usable.
As a group, the cucumbers are starting to look a little haggard. But then, August is only two weeks away, so maybe the cucumbers should be approaching the end of their run.
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For reference. Marketmore total weights each year, through July 15:
2013: 0 — none until July 18. End of season total: 25,414g (56.0 lbs)
2014: 0 — none until July 28. End of season total: 20,141g (44.4 lbs)
2015: 3932 g (8.7 lbs). As a flat guess — the warm summer weather is causing the cucumbers to produce and age rapidly, and we’ll still see something around 40-55 pounds of Marketmores by the end of the year. The candle that burns twice as fast burns half as long. Accelerated Decrepitude.