newbie ?? about cucumbers

Hello

I have been a lurker for a year now and decided to join the group

I have really enjoyed reading about and seeing all of your gardens!

I have a question.....this year I have done most of my gardening from seed.....planted before hand inside the house under a grow light.
For some reason, after I put out my cucumbers into the garden a few days later they die....is it still to early to put out cucumbers?

every thing else seems to be doing good.....i had a couple broc's and califlower's not do so good ....due to slug damage but the replacements are doing great thank goodness i seeded a few extras!

sunflowers, peas, onions, lettuce and spinach doing awesome.....
beans and carrots just now coming up.....
Tomatoes, peppers doing good....i still have them up next to the house in their self watering containers to keep warm during the night low temps.....

this is my second year of square foot gardening.....i have two 4 x 4 box's and one 2x8 box

I also have two wine barrels and two garbage cans for my potatoes

something new this year....in my back yard we planted the three sisters garden.....is it normal for corn to be slow going?....i started them inside under lights in home made new's paper pots....so that the roots didnt get to disturbed....they are about three inch's or so tall....but have stayed that way for a while now....the corn is about 20 days or so old......any suggestion would be great

Sorry for the long intro and any spelling mistakes.......

Our family is having a lot of fun again this year.....seems like the garden is growing all around us now.....we just keep adding....hanging basket here and there......LOL

hugs
rose

First, Hello! and welcome.

It is early for corn and cucumbers, beans are a coin toss this early most years, this year has been extra cold in Western Washington. Last year too. 2009 was good for early starts, but gardeners get to remember the good years but are forced to live in the moment.

It never feels good to loose anything, but seed can be restarted (I was going to say cheap but it just ain't so anymore)

In a flurry of optimism I stood in the warm air that graced us yesterday (Wednesday, May 18) and seeded soil blocks with cucumbers, three kinds of melons and squashes. I also put one square of early beans into a box. I know I might be replanting all of these, but at this stage I am not emotionally invested in those babies. On the other hand; my eggplant already has two things--two pare of true leaves and my heart. The tomatoes had become so labor intensive for me that at the end of the day I forgot to bring in my eggplant. The nighttime temperature plunged Tuesday night because the blanket-like cloud cover was gone. After I gave the eggplant babies a drink from the rain barrel they fell over and wilted from the chill. Much to my relief they came back in the heat of the afternoon. Now I am idgy about a trip to Sequim this weekend.

If you have been reading us for a while, you know that both Furbalsmom and Boffer use plastic covers over their boxes. They are magnificent structures (Boffer’s are even heated!). I think the book talks about making a simple-removable cover. It might be just what your corn needs to wake up and grow. Your cucumbers might need to be replaced. Another problem for cucumbers is peppers. Both sweet and hot kill cucumbers that are planted near by.

Can I just say how fun it was to read about your garden!?! Thanks for posting that. Looking forward to more.

Deborah....watching the temperature go up with the sun.

Hi FamilyG,
Welcome to the forum.

I'm not in the PNW but I can tell you cukes have to be planted AFTER the last frost free date, about a wk or even two. Any disturbance to the roots can kill them, that's why most folks start them from seed directly in the garden.

Hey Debs, I never knew about peppers affecting cukes before. Nice to know. I had to recheck my garden plan and luckily no peppers are scheduled in the same beds as my cuke towers. Thanks for the tip.

Thank you for the warm welcome!

I do have straw down in the three sisters garden.......maybe they will perk up once our weather stays steady with some warm sun

I did plant some cucumber seed's direct into the soil after loosing my babies I hand raised in the house.......(shhhh.....i also bought replacements at the store yesterday)...but brought them in last night for a sleep over until i was able to get some advice from you guys

wow....another warm day today!.......i hope you all are enjoying these few days of its wonderful!

hugs
rose

I wanted to jump in and say welcome aboard! You have a great region and are in good hands.

I wish I could help with the cucumber issues, but I am growing them for the first time, too.

I would also encourage you to share your garden with us when you get the chance. I quickly fell in love with watching everyone else's gardens, too. Digital photography allows us all to share at will now, so I take almost every opportunity I can.

Hope to see more of you now that you came out of the weeds....lol. Glad you did.

FamilyGardening wrote:Hello

I have been a lurker for a year now and decided to join the group

I have really enjoyed reading about and seeing all of your gardens!

I have a question.....this year I have done most of my gardening from seed.....planted before hand inside the house under a grow light.
For some reason, after I put out my cucumbers into the garden a few days later they die....is it still to early to put out cucumbers?

every thing else seems to be doing good.....i had a couple broc's and califlower's not do so good ....due to slug damage but the replacements are doing great thank goodness i seeded a few extras!

sunflowers, peas, onions, lettuce and spinach doing awesome.....
beans and carrots just now coming up.....
Tomatoes, peppers doing good....i still have them up next to the house in their self watering containers to keep warm during the night low temps.....

this is my second year of square foot gardening.....i have two 4 x 4 box's and one 2x8 box

I also have two wine barrels and two garbage cans for my potatoes

something new this year....in my back yard we planted the three sisters garden.....is it normal for corn to be slow going?....i started them inside under lights in home made new's paper pots....so that the roots didnt get to disturbed....they are about three inch's or so tall....but have stayed that way for a while now....the corn is about 20 days or so old......any suggestion would be great

Sorry for the long intro and any spelling mistakes.......

Our family is having a lot of fun again this year.....seems like the garden is growing all around us now.....we just keep adding....hanging basket here and there......LOL

hugs
rose

Rosse
So very nice that you finally joined us after a year of lurking

A couple of things that could affect your cucumbers.
1. Has your soil warmed up yet? Cucumbers need a minimum of 60 degree soil temperature to germinate. My Table Tops have just warmed to 60 degrees. My bed in the community garden is still just 54 degrees brrrrrrr.
2. Are you hardening off your little transplants for about a week before they go into your garden? If they have been coddled in the house they become fairly fragile and stress too much if they do not get a chance to acclimate to the harsh outdoors of our cool, damp PNW.

Please keep us posted on your progress and we absolutely to share pictures.

Again, Welcome

Thank you all again for all the welcomes!!

and yes.....as soon as i can i will take and post some picks

We had our first salad from the garden tonight....it was sooo yummy.....spinach, mix lettuce and a green onion my daugher (11) said it was the best salad she ever tasted and went back for seconds my son (4) even tried some....he didnt care for the dressing i used....but hey...he tried something green and leafy....LOL both kids help a lot with the garden, and this year my husband made them each a self watering container, using a ruber maid containers.....they each picked out the seeds they wanted to plant and are so proud to see all of them coming up we still used the square foot planting....its been a great teaching them about differnt plants and how many can fit into a square.....i used a paper towel and drew out the square and layed them on top of the soil....then they were able to figure out how much of what veggie or flower could fit into the area the have to work with.....they also help plan the bigger garden and helped to pick out what we wanted to plant this year...along with trying some new things too

I have been taking my babies out to visit the garden.......i did the cucumbers for a week.....i really believe now that it has been to cold for them....i havent tested my soil....can i use my kitchen/cooking thermometer?

Im glad i joined too!
hugs
rose

Rose,

I used my kitchen meat thermometer to check out the soil temperature.

I was very careful to clean it afterward. I guess I will break down and buy one just for the garden. My DH has this thing about me putting the meat thermometer into compost and then food. :scratch:

This is my first year with SFG and I made the plastic covers like described in the book (with some help from the certified SFG lady at Home Depot) and it's the best thing I ever did. If you're worried about temperatures, they have worked wonders! We warmed up nicely and I planted a whole bunch of stuff, only for the weather to turn on me--it's been constant rain and temps in the mid 40s for this entire week. My plants have been covered almost constantly with the plastic (I go out at about 11 a.m. and vent the corner so they aren't completely cooped up) but if the sun comes out I uncover them. Everything looks very happy in their little hut--I have new growth on my tomatoes and peppers and my cucumber and melon seeds have sprouted. Because the plastic gets condensation, they are also staying fairly well watered without me doing anything.

A word of warning.... I killed off my whole first crop of plants with the plastic covers. It was about 50 degrees outside so I assumed they were safe to stay covered but they were cooking because the sun was beating down on them. Someone on this forum said a good rule of thumb is if the sun is shining the temp will be about 40 degrees warmer under the covers, 10 degrees warmer on a cloudy day. So now if I see the sun, I immediately uncover them.

I am still learning... and have gotten a lot of help on this forum so keep asking questions! You'll be glad you have access to all these awesome gardeners!

FamilyGardening wrote:Hello

For some reason, after I put out my cucumbers into the garden a few days later they die....is it still to early to put out cucumbers?

I'm chuckling as I read this -- I think somehow I've defied the odds! I've not grown cukes before, so just planted the cuke seeds when I planted my other squares. The cukes were slower to emerge (I planted two in the square, the first emerged last week and the second just a day or two ago) but have arrived. I now understand that might not be the best plan, especially with our area's weather this spring.

What's interesting to me is that my lettuce square is only showing one small seedling (I planted four in the square) and my romaine hasn't done a thing -- and I thought lettuces were cold weather crops! Ah well, I shall replant. Great to read the "sometimes you just have to replant" comments -- quite reassuring.

May the rain this weekend only be occasional!

Mcard.....
The lettuce may have been planted too deeply.
Just place it on top of the soil and cover with vermiculite and water.
Keep it moist until it germinates.
It needs sunshine to germinate so doesn't want to be buried.