Cucumber/Summer Squash Suggestions for a Cool Wet Spring
 

This is the time to start cucumbers indoors if you wish to get a jump start for those growing in the north. I usually start a few seeds in cups and supplement with outdoor sown seeds when the soil is fully warmed up. For me, cucumbers usually catch up, but squash benefits from the indoor start.



The Weather Channel has published a NOAA (?) map of predicted summer temps and precipitation. I am in the bulls eye for "far" below temps and above average moisture. I'm impatient, and looking for suggestions for cucumber varieties (and once those are sown, summer squash) for cooler climates.



If the prediction changes, I can return to the joy of fighting squash vine borers, squash bugs, and cucumber beetles later in the season. In the meantime, if a cucumber that can produce in cool wet soil stands out in your garden, bring it on please!


- Lisa

Cucumber - Cool Wet Spring
 

Lisa,
I usually plant these two varieties as they seem to do well in the initial planting when it is cooler and wetter than later in the season.

(1) Arkansas Little Leaf.
Available from:
[url]https://www.heavenlyseed.net/[/url]

(2) Wisconsin SMR-58

I buy these seed at a local gardening store.

I just saw this thread. I can't give you an answer from experience growing in cooler wet conditions, but I did look it up. It seems that it is believed that Fedco grows their seeds in Maine - says a member of one survivalist group. I don't know if that is true or not, but it could be worth checking into?

I have several cups started and will restart some as they look miserable. I may have cooked them under lights or some did not like being outside once germinated. Butternut is doing wonderful, watermelon meh, cucumbers not so much. I'm sure that I have seed for SMR 58, and I didn't remember that it originated in Wisconsin. I'll check my tags and see if I need to start that one.

Useful information, as usual, Robert. Thus going forward I will turn to Fedco Usually I can start seed in the ground in early June, and start just a few in pots. This year everything is cooler than normal, in part due to the continued high water table from rain and levy releases. I want plants ready when summer finally arrives.


- Lisa