Mutants Of the Greenhouse

If you have been following Steemit for any length of time you have no doubt hear of @papa-pepper, he is a writer, gardener, animal catcher and all around great guy. Papa-pepper sent me an assortment of seeds a month or so back and me being the idiot that likes to plant things in my hydroponic greenhouse to see what they will do, I planted a few of his Kiwano seeds that he so kindly sent me. I think that may have been the biggest mistake of my career.

 If you want to catch up on the origins of the story check this post:

https://steemit.com/gardening/@jed78/a-steemit-collaboration-papa-peppers-seeds-in-the-steemhouse

 You can see in the pictures that these Kiwanos looked so small and fragile, like they would need a little TLC to make it in the giant greenhouse. They looked scared, intimidated even. Well let me tell you something, it was a trick! These little beasts fooled me, they bamboozled me, I was flimflammed. These jokers waited til I wasn't looking one night and shot up with the leap of an Olympic gold medal pole vaulter. One morning I went in and they were ten feet tall, the next morning they were growing down the support cable about three feet. THEY ARE MUTANTS!

 I have never seen anything grow like this in my years of greenhouse work, which is only 4, but you get the point.

 The other item of note is that these monsters, like most other cucurbits, are equipped with little bristles along the vine, not really thorns but they do irritate bare skin, it's an effective defense mechanism. These jokers will leave you itching. The roots of these plants grew down into the drain line and clogged it, so I had to wade thru this dense jungle of vines and get down to the buckets, big mistake, my arms and hands were on fire!  

 There is some good news to this tale of woe, I found the first bloom today, I was a little worried that they hadn't shown any blooms til now. It looks like my worries are over...or are they! lol

 

 So these better make about nine million Kiwanos for all the pain they have caused me so far, I mentioned above about the drain issues, i rolled a little video for you to see what I'm talking about.

In Other Cucurbit News

 the cucumbers are rolling right along, looks like it's going to be a great crop of cukes in this first round. The vines are starting to make the ten foot level and putting on plenty of fruit. 

 This one is about 6 inches and should be ready to pick in a few days, although you could eat them right now. Interesting note, cucumbers are not really a fruit to eat when they are ripe. When they are ripe they turn yellow and have very tough seeds, best time to get them is when the seeds are still tender and haven't hardened up. 

Tomato News

 The tomatoes are coming along nicely, should be able to pick several pounds by next week, we have quite a few with color but it is inconsistent. By next week should have some color on most of the plants, but here is a preview.

  So that's our news for the day, If I can give you some free advice, watch what seeds you take from @papa-pepper, he may be from an alien plant civilization trying to colonize the planet with Kiwanos!

 I also just want to take a minute and thank all the good folks that follow me, I know I haven't been posting much lately due to the nature of our growing season. We are starting to ramp up and posting may get slower before it get's faster. I have some great ideas about posting from the market's we go to and showing some of the great vendors, so hang tight, I will get some good stuff soon, not the same old boring greenhouse stuff!

Again, thanks for taking the time to stop by and I will get back to you soon!

Until then, keep growing!

 Awesome Handcrafted @jed78 logo kindly donated by @papa-pepper - Thank you!