cucumber flowers

[leeleelocs]

are cucumber flowers eatible? What do they taste like? I know squash flowers are eatible. The cucumbers crop is very good and very large fruit. Thanks.

also what is a good organic product to keep bugs off kale?

[exurb]

never ate em, I like borage though for a flower with a cucumber-esque taste.

For the kale, it totally depends on what bugs you have. But generally food grade diatomaceous earth (DE) works well on many bugs, and also spraying with BT (a bacteria) works well generally for the cabbage wormey family of stuff, and little worms that eat holes. Other organic stuff like rotenone really works but it is more toxic, personally I wouldn't use that on a leaf you eat. With pyrethin flower sprays you have to actually cover the bug with it for it to work, where the first two things I said can just keep working while on the plant. The DE needs to be dry to work.

For the kale you can also try to put some flowers around it that repel bugs, like tansy, or strong stinky spanish marigolds.

[Lay-Lay]

hmmmm.....I don't think I have ever tried them either. The bugs barely got to my kale this year, but I do know the marigolds work.

[Gelis]

I planted cauliflower this year cause I wanted to see a cauliflower grow. Never got one cauli however, nothing but the cauliflower was attacked by the bugs. So for my fall garden I am trying it all around to see if it does the trick again.