Picking a Japanese Cucumber?

Question

Two questions here.

I have a Japanese cucumber plant and I have cucumber growing. This is my first time vegetable gardening, so I don't know when to harvest the veggies. The cucumber that is growing looks like a dill pickle. It is about 5 1/2 " long and just about an inch - inch 1/2 thick. It is a med-dark green color and the flower on the tip looks like it died today. I read online that this type of cucumber can grow very long (not too thick) so don't know when I should pick it. Should I pick it now that the flower died off?

Also, my nearby zucchini plant has overtaken my garden box. I didn't know it would grow to the size it grew to, so I planted Japanese Eggplant across from it on the same day as the zucchini was planted. Now the zucchini are growing plentiful and large but the Japanese Eggplant is almost completely hidden underneath the plant and gets very little direct sunlight. It is producing eggplant but they are very small and thin, then they go to mush.....

Answer 1

Pick it! And congratulations on your first of many. It should be tender enough that you probably don't need to peel it, or if you do use a peeler alternating stripes so it looks pretty when you cut it.  Your next one will be longer.

Don;t stake zucchini, it's too heavy. You can bend the plant around away from the eggplant. Eggplant costs more than zucchini but zucchini produces more so it's a tough call if you have to make Sophie's choice with the veggies.

To increases yield, now is a good time to fertilize again with whatever you are comfortable with, whether that is guano or 15-15-15.