So... if you grow cucumber plants or tomatoes or whatever, at some point you run into the idea that people say pick the cucumbers small or they won't preserve well. Or they'll taste better smaller. You always hear this. But when you grow cucumbers, you can see that they can get BIG. I mean really big. I've grown cucumbers that were the size of some squash fruit.
But this brings me to my question... if you pick the vegetables when they are smaller, and let's say you had 2 different cucumber plants where with the 1 you picked them small, and with the other plant you only picked them big, are you going to get similar weight of total vegetables at the end of the season? (And assuming comparable fertility, comparable water, fertilizer, etc). I was really hoping to get input on this. I mean... if you are picking them smaller, then the only real gain would be if the plant decides it will up the production through how it senses absense of fruit etc... If it doesn't then there's no point to picking them small just for a bit of extra flavor.
Has anyone also proven this and tried to test it?
Thank you for any thoughts. I hope to get more information.
But this brings me to my question... if you pick the vegetables when they are smaller, and let's say you had 2 different cucumber plants where with the 1 you picked them small, and with the other plant you only picked them big, are you going to get similar weight of total vegetables at the end of the season? (And assuming comparable fertility, comparable water, fertilizer, etc). I was really hoping to get input on this. I mean... if you are picking them smaller, then the only real gain would be if the plant decides it will up the production through how it senses absense of fruit etc... If it doesn't then there's no point to picking them small just for a bit of extra flavor.
Has anyone also proven this and tried to test it?
Thank you for any thoughts. I hope to get more information.