Gardener Uses a Cucumber to Grow an Entire Lemon Tree — We Were Not Ready For The Results

Nature works on the mechanism of energy exchange. The underlying energy might be the same, but as it flows and expresses through the space, new forms materialize. One gardener, who goes by the moniker @ShafikulGarden, did something striking with this mechanism. He used the fertile energies of cucumbers to grow a full-fledged lemon tree. Employing a fascinating technique called “air layering,” the gardener watched his lemons propagate like crazy. “I propagated a lemon tree in one month using cucumber power,” he titled the 5-minute video. In the latter segment of the video, he shared the step-by-step process.

Choose a healthy and vigorous lemon stem

Upon measuring a finger-sized portion of the lemon stem, the gardener brought in a chipping blade. Gripping the red handle in his hand, he started chipping away the selected portion of the bark. First, he pushed the blade into the step, marking the portion’s ends. “Use a sharp knife to make a ring-shaped cut, 1 to 2 inches long, around the branch,” he explained in the video’s overlay text. Once the rings were punctured, he started rubbing the blade in a vertical gesture.

Press the cut cucumber pieces on the stem

One sharp gash and the greenish peel loosened from the stem. He rolled around the loosened patch to strip away the peel from the selected stem, revealing the mint-colored interior. He thoroughly rubbed the blade onto this green interior, chipping away the uneven shreds until all that was left was a whitish cylinder. Then came a cucumber. Using the same blade, the gardener sliced both ends of the cucumber, leaving only the middle cylinder. While the two hemispheres were dropping down, he pushed the blade once again into the vertical dimension of the leftover cucumber cylinder.

From the two cylindrical halves resulting from the cut, he scooped out the watery cucumber pulp, carving hollow trails inside. In the next step, he pressed the hollowed cucumber pieces onto the chipped portion of the lemon stem, pushing a volley of toothpicks from piece through the other to tuck them shut. Running from one cucumber piece into the chipped stem, the toothpicks hung in the air like arrows on an animal’s body. With a scissors, he trimmed the pointy ends of these toothpicks.

Add soil

The following item was a transparent plastic glass with a hole punched into its circular base. He ripped the plastic to the hole, breaking open the glass. Then, he wrapped the plastic around the wounded stem, hugged by cucumber pieces, and secured the ripped edge with a black electrical tape. The glass now dangled like a greenhouse, encapsulating the cucumbers and injured stem within. As the footage continued, the gardener added Cocopeat’s soil into this greenhouse, covering the cucumber-wrapped stem and filling it up to the brim. From a bottle, he poured generous amounts of water into this soil mixture.

Seal it tight

The gardener then enwrapped this soil-filled plastic container with a black paper, sealing it tightly from the top. “Cover the glass with a polythene or aluminium foil,” the overlay read. The footage then transitioned to show this sealed container after 40 days. He unfolded the black paper to reveal a network of yellowish roots that had taken over the plastic greenhouse. He loosened the plastic to liberate the clump of soil within. Using a blade to pierce a cut at its bottom, he detached the clump and transferred it to a white planting pot, already filled with brown mulch. He dug the mulch, inserted the baby plant inside, and released a spray of water.

Fast forward to today, the baby has sprouted into a lush lemon tree.

You can follow @shafikulgarden on YouTube for more gardening tricks.