Cucumbers Sown, Peppers Beheaded & Sunflower Update
I’m almost 2 weeks behind in starting my cucumber
transplants, so I finally got cracking this past week.
I am growing 3 types of cucumbers this year – “Suyo Long”, “Lemon” and “Garden Sweet Burpless”. For each variety, I sowed seeds in one cell of a cell pack. I need 8 cucumber seedlings in total, so the remaining 5 starts were sown in individual 3” pots. Then the cell pack/pots were placed on the covered heat mat.
Remember the sunflowers I sowed in the soil that I talked
about HERE? Well, 2 weeks later and
NOTHING. My notes said that germination
should take place in 5-10 days, so I knew something must have gone wrong, but
what? I even dug into the soil to see what
had happened. In one cup, I found this
sad, small sunflower seed that looked very much the same as when I had planted
it, only softer. In the other, I couldn’t even find
the seed – maybe it disintegrated - who knows?
Uh oh, I was thinking. I probably got a bad batch of seeds.
Cucumbers are supposed to be very sensitive to root
disturbance – this tells me that I should use a larger pot than a typical cell
pack to start the seeds. But larger pots
take up much more space than cell packs, not to mention the extra seed starting
mix needed to fill them, so I only use them when necessary. Now, I suppose I could wait and sow the seeds
outside instead of bothering with transplants.
But our growing season is already too short for my liking - if I can get
a longer harvest period by using transplants, then that is what I usually do.
The question is – IS it necessary to use larger pots when
starting cucumber seeds? I decided that
I was going to find out.
I am growing 3 types of cucumbers this year – “Suyo Long”, “Lemon” and “Garden Sweet Burpless”. For each variety, I sowed seeds in one cell of a cell pack. I need 8 cucumber seedlings in total, so the remaining 5 starts were sown in individual 3” pots. Then the cell pack/pots were placed on the covered heat mat.
Germination took place in only 3 days. Once I transplant these out into the garden later this month, I will label them so that I know which ones grew in the pots & which grew in the cell packs. Then, it's just a matter of noting any significant difference between them.
Cucumber Seedlings - 3 Days After Sowing |
Out in the garden, I sowed a couple of rows of radishes
(white & red) around the collards. I'm not sure if they will germinate or not
as I had incorporated soybean meal into the entire bed. Soybean meal apparently inhibits seed germination
by up to 50% which is why “they” (I’m never really sure who “they” are) advise
to only use it when you are sowing transplants.
For me, radishes are nice to have but not essential, so I figured it was
worth a shot. Best case, they germinate
and I know that I don’t have worry about this in the future when it comes to
radishes. Worst case, it becomes a
learning experience & I sow radishes in another bed.
On to my pepper plants.
I was so excited when I went downstairs last week and found little tiny flower
buds on some of my peppers.
Beautiful Buds |
And then I promptly pinched off the tops of all the plants
that had formed buds. If I let those few buds mature, chances
are that my plants would end up being smaller overall with fewer fruits. It takes a lot of energy to produce peppers –
energy that would be better spent, at this stage in their lives, on growing a
better root system & stockier plant with more branching. So I am being ruthless.
Off With Their Heads!! |
I decided to try pre-germinating them. Even though I only wanted 2 plants, I placed 6
seeds in a damp paper towel (because OBVIOUSLY there was a high germination failure
rate) & placed this on a container in my heat mat tray.
Well, two days later, EVERY SINGLE SEED germinated. Every one.
In two days. I was a bit
shocked. I sowed the germinated seeds &
two days after that, they all emerged from the soil.
Sunflower - 2 Days After Sowing Germinated Seeds |
So I sit here baffled – I have absolutely NO idea what
happened when I sowed them the 1st time. What I DO know, is that I will add sunflowers
to the list of plants that I pre-germinate.
The gardening season is now in high gear, at least when it comes to sowing, transplanting, etc. My front porch is seeing a lot of hardening off action.
Mass Hardening Off Has Started |
I am now hardening off my tomatoes,
basil, borage, nasturtium, marigolds, swiss chard and parsley.
Some of the beds that these plants will go into are not yet built, but we are over half-way there. We are adding a total of nine beds. Six of them are constructed & filled - only
3 more to go! And the weather in the
last few days has been absolutely maaaarvelous….FINALLY!! With highs in the mid 20’s (C) which, in Fahrenheit is the mid-high
70’s, it is perfect gardening weather.
Till next time…
You know it's close to planting time when you see porch-fuls of transplants learning to like the real world. We're a tad over 2 weeks to go--and I see they (haha--THEY!) are calling for snow on Friday. Bummer for all the things that have emerged on their own in the garden. But, a lot of the time , those self sown plants are tough as nails. Could be a lesson in that (?????)
ReplyDeleteHave a fine day in the garden
Ugh – snow in May?! Hopefully it’s just a light dusting & all of your emerging plants will just shake it off (literally!). We are finally having some good weather (well, except that it is raining right now), but I see that later in the week we are getting lows in the low 40’s – even 39°C on one day. I’m supposed to be transplanting a bunch of warm weather stuff next Monday – Guess I will have to wait and see if I have to hold off on setting them out.
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