What Does a Cucumber Look Like, and How Do You Grow Ginseng-Fruit-Shaped Cucumbers?
We are all familiar with the cucumber as a fruit, and cucumber growing techniques are relatively simple. The fruit is oily green or emerald green, with soft small spines on its surface. The fruit shape is oblong, round or cylindrical. But have you ever seen a "ginseng fruit" cucumber? 201
We are all familiar with the cucumber as a fruit, and cucumber growing techniques are relatively simple. The fruit is oily green or emerald green, with soft small spines on its surface. The fruit shape is oblong, round or cylindrical. But have you ever seen a “ginseng fruit” cucumber?
In June 2019, in a farmland in Shangqiu, Henan, Lu Zhen, a young man born in 1996, grew “ginseng fruit” cucumbers. This kind of cucumber is grown inside a mold, and when mature it looks like a Fuwa, very delicate and cute. The grower Lu Zhen said that the price of “ginseng fruit” cucumbers is more than twenty times that of ordinary cucumbers. This has made many people want to buy this kind of cucumber seed, and even a Russian buyer found Lu Zhen, but this kind of cucumber is not yet in mass production.
After graduating from university, Lu Zhen devoted himself to rural areas, working every day on the cultivation and management of cucumbers and on ordering and recommending seeds and seedlings. Besides ginseng-fruit-shaped cucumbers, he has also grown Fuwa-shaped and heart-shaped cucumbers, and many netizens who saw these shaped cucumbers liked them very much.
So you must be wondering whether this is a new variety of cucumber; in fact, the seeds for growing these cucumbers are nothing special compared with ordinary cucumber seeds. The difference is that when these cucumbers grow to a certain size, Lu Zhen uses a knife to cut them into two halves, and on the end still attached to the vine he fits molds of different shapes. As the cucumber continues to grow, creative cucumbers are “produced” one after another this way.
The Fuwa-shaped cucumbers Lu Zhen grows are very exquisite and beautiful. Besides Fuwa, there is also Xiwɑ, meaning “double happiness,” with an auspicious meaning. But when netizens see cucumbers like these, they all say “I just can't bring myself to eat it!” because they really like the shape of this kind of cucumber, which is very appealing. Some netizens also asked: can eating this melon make you live longer?
It is understood that these cucumbers sell for more than 20 times the price of ordinary cucumbers, but market demand for them is still very high. Would you like to grow this kind of cucumber?
