They look healthy, Lynn. Just bury their stems deep at planting time.

Lynn, some plants have the branches spaced out farther, but I agree that the light is most often the cause of plants getting more leggy. I put more lights on my light shelves and pretty well solved the problem, but if I were to build my light shelves again, I would space them farther apart. I have to remove my plants before they get that tall because they would be growing up into the lights.

I just went down the hwy. to a wreck. Just past the edge of my land a truck ran off the road on the left side, over corrected and hit the ditch on the right side, no one hurt, but it almost ripped the bed off the bob truck. This is a very hard road to drive on, it is too narrow, and no shoulders.

NWS predicted 61* for today, at the OKC East mesonet, its 48 right now, don't think its gonna make it to 61 . Sooo, they've said 39* tonight. I'm gonna put the buckets over the plants again tonight.

I'll just water everything in the morning, and leave town till Sunday. Then the yardwork / seedlings care will start in earnest. :)

Have a wonderful weekend all

Moni

It is 47 here, but I wont have any plants out for a long time. The first week in May is when I normally plant, but have cheated some in the last couple of years if the long range forecast says it is okay.

You guys have heard me brag on my sweet potatoes, but I just took a picture of the potatoes and pieces of potatoes I placed under the lights and on the heat mat 3-26-22. This is the most even start I have ever had, but the lights and heat stay on 24/7.

Mine are just a big leggy right now, Lynn. I just potted them up and they are s-t-r-e-t-ching up toward the light! They'll be fine--they always are. Fans DO help, but I'm usually too lazy.

Amy, I am so so not happy to hear about you being sick.

Peppers: Super Shepherd Overview - Growing Tips (smartgardener.com) Check this one out, Amy. . . I've not grown it before. SAYS thick, might be worth a try, no? Yep, had good germination on Ashe Cty, so have plenty.

The plants outside are beginning to wake up/sprout up. Broccoli raab enjoys the weather. The rest of us, not so much.

Nancy, those plants look nice. Where can I find some heavy trays like you have? The trays I find around here are the black, very light duty ones, with holes in them

Larry, those came with the grow cart. It was my brother's and he got it from Johnny's Seeds, but he gave it to me when I moved down here. I was missing a couple so ordered 2 more trays. They were super expensive, as I remember. Well, at least they'll outlast me. The Greenhouse Megatore online has some heavy sturdy ones. I didn't get them because they were just slightly smaller than Johnny's and I was afraid they wouldn't fit. Trays & Flats | Greenhouse Megastore

Thanks, Nancy, the ones you linked will work fine.

I need to order good trays too, Larry. A lot of the homesteading YouTubers use Bootstrap Farmer. I've never ordered from them, though.

Nancy's trays look great!

I have four trays that I bought in 1985. Yeah, they're pretty flimsy and brittle and I don't use them anymore. I don't throw anything away. Really close to being a hoarder. I pity my daughters when they have to clean out after I'm gone.

But I buy the cheap flimsy ones from Amazon and then double them up, one inside the other.

If I wanted to make some pickles, when should I plant cucumbers and how much garden space would I need ?

Lynn--then that means mine weren't so expensive after all! LOLOLOL Plant cukes either first week of May, of last week of July--or both if you want a lot of pickles. We had more than enough to pickle for four people in a 4x16 bed. Think it was only four plants.

Lynn ,about cucumbers I plant mine about the same time as summer squash, just after putting in tomatoes. Definitely after the last frost. I remember there was this rule that they go out on the 100th day of the year. which would be around the 2nd week of Apr. I don't know if that applies now. I usually buy the transplants in the 6-pks when I see them around. You can direct seed them in hills if you want.. I usually get the slicing cucumbers. They need some space to spread out , kinda like a small watermelon or let them go up a trellis. They can take up a full size raised bed , something like 4' by 8'.. They don't do good in the July heat , they 're usually done by then.

Rick

Lynn, if it helps, we are starting cukes tonight along with squash and melons. I have been using Clyde's slide rule from Baker Creek for the last several years to keep it simple. Seems to work really well and helps me to not forget anything. It has other good info as well (min. germination temp, spacing, etc).

Nancy, hwy20, Rick, and Lynn, you guys are giving me info that I need. I usually have cucumbers from volunteers, we don't eat many, but I have been after the kids to learn to grow food ( which seems to mean that I plant more and they come and pick it ). But anyway cucumbers is one of the things I was ask to grow. I have never pickled any, and seldom buy plants. I bought a cheap 25 cent pack of seeds and now have a 6 pack ready to plant, and more seeds to plant. I was thinking that I might plant every 2 or 3 weeks, but it sounds like that might not work because of the heat.

I will plant a few cucumbers on a trellis here at the house, and probably a large supply in the wildlife garden for my neighbor to sell.

I also have some Arabat seeds drying, and some test planted on the light shelf, those are such a pretty winter squash, they look a lot like a butternut, but larger and brighter. The Arabat is another seed I got from George, he has such neat stuff. I expect to have extra seeds, if any of you guys want any ( hoping germination test out okay )

Lynn I keep a fan on my seedlings from the minute the germinate. 24/7. It keep them sturdy and cool so they don’t grow too fast.

Kim, what does it do to tomatoes if they do grow too fast? I have heard about the grow too fast and turning the lights off and on before, but I seem to never get around to doing either.

Haha, Kim. Nancy just ran and put the fan on the tomatoes! I know it's recommended--I only have one small fan; so this will be a test. One tray gets the fan, the other doesn't. I shall report back! :)

I've planted cukes and squash directly outside. Heck--maybe I WILL start them to give them a headstart. But won't do it quite yet.

I keep adding on. . . I'm checking out Bootstrap Farmers, Jennifer. Thank you for the tip!

That's interesting , Kim , I will try that.

I only have one corner of the garden available. Its 4 ' x 7' . its on the south edge of the garden so it won't be shaded by tomato plants. I was gonna put three pepper plants in this spot. but if it will work for cucumbers , I will change my plans. I saw a recipe for pickles in a barbecue book and I'd like to go home grown.

Here's my spot

It doesn’t hurt the plant for production for it to grow fast leggy etc. too warm they grow too fast and get leggy or spindly. No fan no resistance. Strength is achieved in slower growing with resistance.
My best plants ever I had a great set up. Light on timer. 16 hours on 8 off. Oscillating fans on low 24/7. No heat mats nothing special. And yes I top water.

Lynn homegrown cucumbers are the best. I have all my grandchildren home on them. I usually grow 4-5 varieties. Hopefully this year I will have some. Last year grasshoppers took them all

Lynn , that could work for cucumbers if you don't mind the some of the vines running out onto the grass or growing into the nearest tomato cages. If I was doing it I would plant 3 hills (or 3 transplants) spaced equally along the length of the space. I don't know if that will produce enough cucumbers all at once to make a big batch of pickles. Just have to try it and see.

You doing whole pickles or sliced pickles?

Rick

Kim--I had ordered Nolo Bait this year and was tickled. Well got a note from Amazon saying the seller had sold out. So now am high and dry. Did you find any?

I was just pricing some supplies for trellises, I got a case of "sticker shock ". All though some stuff has gone up more than others, it is still shocking what material cost. I keep a supply of the things I use. I normally keep 1 x 6 treated wood on hand, and still think that I have plenty for now, but the treated fence planks I have stored, now cost about 250% more than what I gave for mine. I should have invested in boards, they are going up in value, my dollar is going down in value.

I need to go pot up some plants. Speaking of plants, they have gone up about 25 %. Where is that 71/2 % inflation that I am hearing about? I think somebody is pulling my leg.

Nancy I will check the feed stores.

Rick, I'm doing sliced pickles

Tuffy Stone - Bread and Butter pickles

ok ,if your doing refrigerator pickles sliced, then that will work. I'd get whatever sliced cucumber transplants are available in the stores. If you get small amounts at a time then refrigerating them will work.

You could make the pickling liquid and store it in a jar in the frig along with whatever pickles you have at the time . Then as you get more cucumbers to pickle use the liquid you have stored, Then make more pickling liquid along as long as you have more cucumbers coming in. The cucumbers themselves will keep in the frig for a week or so while you're waiting for more cukes or for more liquid. Might take a bit of refrigerator management.

Rick

Lynn, those pickles look good. What kind of cucumber would be good for that? The plants I potter up this afternoon are Muncher cucumbers, but I have other seeds.

They DO look good. Have any of you ever made lime refrigerator pickles? A friend of mine made them years ago. I'm going to have to find the recipe online. Thanks for sharing that recipe, Lynn.

IDK, what variety of cucumber will work for that recipe. Its probably gonna be trial and error.

Its a big thing in Texas barbecue joints these days , for them to make their own pickles. I would just like to make my own because I eat a lot of pickles with my barbecue. That and pickled red onions .

Tuffy Strone is a Virginia guy, his barbecue is closer to Carolina style than anything else.

Y'all, I made fermented pickles in February. They were store bought ones because.... obviously. BUT, they are so good. I can't wait to make more with the homegrown ones. I'm doing the Persian Cukes this year. I do prefer dill and salty pickles instead of bread and butter OR sweet. Tom prefers the sweeter ones.

Lynn , Straight 8 might be a good candidate if you want to start from seed :https://www.gurneys.com/product/straight_eight_slicing_cucumber?p=0515548&pid=14531&gclid=CjwKCAjwxZqSBhAHEiwASr9n9K9x0iuszXLXdMEykb30J6NxAdgTEOf__-CoIN_16ZSfI63gsxHIiRoCNqAQAvD_BwE

a lot of the slicing cucumber varities you see around in the store are probably the Burpless variety

Dawn's favorite was County Fair.

https://harvesttotable.com/_here_are_20/

Rick

I like National pickling and boson pickling. This year I will ferment as far as I can harvest

I love the sweeter pickles, bread n butter most. Mom was really into home making in her younger days, canning , freezing, and pickling everything. She made different types of lime pickles, all of which I liked. She even made a squash pickle that I really liked. Mom would take large over sized cucumbers and cut then cross wise about 1/4" thick, and cut the center out and make what she called mock apple rings, the way they were dyed and seasoned they even taste like apple rings. I wish I had paid more attention to the things mom did.

Jennifer, I am going to look up the Persian cucumber, I have some Armenian cucumber seeds, but I dont think they are a real cucumber, but I have folks that like to pickle them.

I have many varieties and I want to try them all. I may have to let them crawl instead of trellis so I can keep them covered

Larry here’s a recipe for apple rings
https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/215521/spicy-mock-apple-rings/

Is it not too late to start from seed ? I'm thinking a buy plants at the garden center.

Would not a trellis work better for my spot ?

Thanks, Kim. mom had a ton of recipes that I wish I had now, maybe my daughter has them.

Kim, I think neighbor and I are going to try different types of cucumbers this year, we may have to keep them apart. I don't know anything about saving seed, and don't know what will cross, and if they do, I don't know how much space to have between them. I read that a lot of cucumbers are hybrid and maybe not a good idea to save seeds from.

I dont know if I mentioned it or not , but I potted 7 Pint containers ( 12 ) plants of the Muncher cucumber yesterday, but I am not doing any good with my Red Wine Velvet sweet potatoes, they just dont seem to be a hardy as the Covington, but I still expect to have more sweet potatoes than I need.

I have 15 good healthy tomato plants, and then I have about 100 of the dying and dead tomatoes that I will try to save some to plant.

Of the 2 butchered pumpkin that I cut up for my grand daughter, she got the meat, I got the seeds, of which I now have 5 new Arabat plants. I will have to quit playing around with my plants and seeds, because I am fast running out of room.

Lynn, I like trellises. I don't bend as well as I use to, and a trellis makes harvest easier and the fruit cleaner, and for me it helps by not letting the fruit hide and get as big as a watermelon. three things that I like to use for small trellises are T post, ripped fence boards, and binder twine. Cucumber plants will climb binder twine like a monkey, then at clean up you can just cut the twine with Knife, pull the plant. Large trellises I like cattle panels, those I burn clean with a weed burner.

Lynn, I put the cuke seeds along my trellis mid or late April. i dont start them indoors.

i trellis (or try to) cucumbers.

this year, i have 2 8’x4’ beds dedicated to them. Theres an arches trellis betweern the beds...i guess that means i have 4 raised beds then. BUT my arched trellises are only 4 ft each somit keaves half of the beds. the cukes sprawl if im not careful to tie them up. all of those beds will have extra things tucked in at the empty halves. dill, other herbs, flowers, tomatilloes, so maybe that will motivate me to keep

the cucumber vines tied up.

Larry, the armenian is good for pickles. you just have to harvest small.

According to my spread sheet cucumbers should be started 4/2 and set out 4/23. The spreadsheet is loosely based on the OSU guide. Now, Dawn once said if you started cucurbits inside you should set them out a week after they sprout. I can't prove it, but it made an impression on me. This includes squash. I've always direct seeded cucurbits. I think I do ok with squash but I often put in cucumbers after onions, which may be too late. Bruce recently mentioned cucumbers can be effected by heat like tomatoes and beans. I don't know why THAT never occurred to me. I have trouble with cukes. They get diseased before they produce much. BTW slicing cukes are good for bread and butter. Pickling cukes, picked small, for whole or vertically sliced pickles.

Stupid tablet, submitting before I lose this.

Amy, when I post here using my phone, i always make a ridiculous amount of typos as is shown in my above post. its a real pain in many ways.

if the tablet is like the phone—-grrrr!

in good news, a few carrots are sprouting

I haven't yet grown cucumbers in the spring--well, I did at the school, but not here. Cucumbers started around July 20 or so did great here. I might do it both ways here this . year. If they're sown indoors, they grow so fast that it's counterproductive planting them much more than a week or so ahead. Who needs THAT aggravation. lol

I got the netting for my strawberries today. I guess now I need to go get the strawberries! Thanks for talking me into growing them. Maybe I'll run in and pick those up today.

I like your trellis ideas, Larry. Thanks for sharing.

&}*~£@.!!! squirrels are scooping up the mulch on the beds and throwing it on the ground

I always direct sow cucumbers. I have 12 different types this year I want to try. I may trellis some see if we can cover up a trellis. I pray grasshoppers took a year off. Today I am potting up some of my winter sown stuff. I am going to build a little raised bed to plant some brassicas. I know it’s late but might as well try.

Rebecca, I know it's not funny, but I had to laugh. I just came in from the porch, I was watching a gray squirrel digging around in the front yard. I grew up on this place, and almost never saw a gray squirrel back then. We did have a lot of fox squirrels, which I liked to hunt. The grays moved around so much they were hard to hit with a .22, plus they are smaller and have less meat.

I don't remember starting squash or pumpkins inside before this year, but this year I played a little and started cucumbers and Arabat winter squash inside just for the heck of it. I have 5 Arabat squash potted up out on the porch that are about 2 inches tall, the seeds were removed from a squash last Sunday afternoon. I just wanted to see if the seeds were good. When I was cleaning the seed, I noticed that some seed floated, some sank. My guess was that the better seed sank, so I dried the seeds on a shop light and planted some of the floaters, which were up in no time. I think that this may go along with what Dawn said about getting the plants in the ground soon after they sprout.

Amy's experience with cucurbits seem to match mine. Makes sense since we are in the same area.

The first year I broke soil in this garden, we were loaded down with cantaloupe. Had several a week and it seemed like we ate on them forever. Sooo sweet and tasty.

Then I found a little lady bug like thing hovering around, but noticed it was yellow instead of red. Thought, hmmm...well maybe it will help us out with aphids or something. Little did I know and for the last few years I can't grow cantaloupe or watermelon without them wilting and dying right after first fruiting. :/

My experience is about the same as Lynn's. I think that it is a good idea to rotate crops. I have enough land to rotate, but not enough good soil. My soil is very shallow and needs a ton of amending. I seem to have less disease in new soil.

I dont start squash and melons inside, but did test some seed for germination, now I am having a hard time throwing these plants away. I will plant more when the weather warms up, but will keep the plants and continue to play with them to see how they produce.

The smaller plants, Arabat squash ( big butternut ) were seeds inside the fruit last Sunday, the Muncher cucumbers were planted some weeks ago.