Monday, May 03, 2010

baby cucumber plants

cukes 030
cukes 040 cukes 0324

They are always the cutest little things. The baby cukes are growing up. I planted many this year. Diva (my favorite), Boston Pickling (a new one for me), North Carolina Pickling, Sweet Success and Tonikawa. I'm looking forward to fresh summer cukes.

I started the seeds inside under lights and today moved them outside to the cold frame (which I am now calling the hot house). In this hot weather, they can go right out. Today we had temps in the 80's. More like July.

13 comments:

Unknown said...

Do you mean you're planting them out, Kathy? Sunday's temps look low overnight... not freezing, but 40. Or do you think such ground huggers will be warm enough from stored heat in the soil? -- Debbie

kathy said...

I'll leave the cucumber seedlings in their little pots at least a week - 'til they outgrow them. But then, I was going to see what's up with the weather. I'm not sure where they'll go yet - maybe into my hot house permanently, and they could certainly be transplanted into that at any time now. It stays very warm in there.

I'm thinking I'll grow melons and cukes in the hot house. My melons are just poking up today. Charentais, Anne Arundale, Crane and big and little water melons.

Thanks for mentioning the weekend cool weather. I was thinking of planting out tomatoes and peppers today. If I do, I'll have hoops and covers ready for the cool mights ahead.

The Garden Girl said...

the cukes look great! I just put
some "chocolate" bell peppers in.
My local nursery woman said she
grew them last yr and were delish!
I added lots of compost to the plot they're in. BUT
A question I ask everyone - is there anything I can do to
increase the size of my peppers?Even the Big Berthas tend to be
smaller than I hope for.

Unknown said...

You know, you have me inspired: I may plant out one bed of 'maters where I have hoops installed, so I can cover them if it seems it's getting too chilly. The soil is darned warm and should keep them sufficiently toasty -- and we can get in a 1-2 week extension on their season (they are certainly big enough to need planting out!). -- Debbie

Unknown said...

I am also tempted to try to plant a few maters just to see what happens. The spring seems like a week or two ahead of schedule. Wonder if i'll get away with it without needing to cover em....

Stratoz said...

I dig Diva!

Unknown said...

do you isolate your gynoecious cukes (e.g., sweet success) from the others to minimize seeds? or just plant at will? this year i'm planning on keeping my gyno's at the home plot, and plant the regular ones at the community plot, buti'm wondering if it really makes that much of a difference...

Anonymous said...

I love this pic! Nothing says spring time better then veggie seedlings! I am thrilled to be on my second year of gardening, the soil looks so much better then last, hopefully a more prosperous year for us!
~Felicia~

kathy said...

I do not know how to get bigger peppers. I would just just the answer would be more sun and hotter temps. And of course all the usual ideal soil stuff.

I have not heard of separating gyno cukes and didn't know anything about this. Maybe someone else has an answer to this.

Matron said...

My cucumbers are at about the same stage as yours. When they get going they are prolific climbers and producers!

Anonymous said...

Hello I know that you do a lot of seed starting indoors, but do you ever do direct planting from seed straight to the garden?
!Felicia~

kathy said...

I start anything I can indoors in pots and then transplant. Plants that don't transplant well, I direct seed into the garden. These include:

Peas, favabeans, carrots, parsnips, radish, sunflowers, nasturtiums, corn and beans.

I sometimes also direct seed dill, greens, and squashes.

Anonymous said...

Good for you! Your plants look great and very healthy. I tried twice and for some reason they failed to thrive for me. They sprouted, grew about 3, 4 inches then just...died. I was told that cuc's are hard to grow and often get something called "blight".