The Great Cucumber Experiment

Perhaps "Great" is pushing it a bit but in essence what kicked this off was a comment made by Toby Buckland in a recent BBC Gardeners' World programme. (Fri 27th Aug)

I quote
"a natty trick; instead of cutting off a whole (cucumber) fruit, is to cut half at a time.....the cut end will develop a new skin & heal. After a week or a fortnight you can enjoy a fresh cucumber all over again..."

The GW world programme is available on BBCiPlayer here for those who would prefer to listen to Mr.B's dulcet tones (around the 20min30sec mark.)...and from a previous GW presenter (the Lord of Cord), covering a very similar topic here

....anyway back to the experiment
Instinctively, it just doesn't sound right. If you wound a plant in a hot & humid atmosphere which, after all, is what cucumbers love, the last thing you expect the cut end to do is heal over. Go rotten and putrify, yes, but heal over no way.

So armed with an unhealthy disdain for TB's advice and a very sharp knife, the only way to prove GW wrong (or maybe right - ED) was to try it.

The following pics show the whole & the dismembered on day1 and update on day2
Day 1 - The whole

Day1 (severed)

Day2 (severed)

Day2 (cut end)

...to be continued