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Old March 23, 2013   #9
kath
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Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: zone 6b, PA
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Your enthusiasm come through loud and clear, John! Tightenup had great advice about not over or under watering- a better plan than trying to give them a little every day. If the top of your soiless mix stays wet you'll likely get green moldy/mossy growth on the surface before plant out. Bottom watering can help decrease this as well as the amount of compaction in your cells.

Your plants might be happier with a period of darkness every day- at least 6-8 hours. A timer might help. I just turn the lights off before I got to bed and turn them back on first thing in the am.

Unless you've got a cold frame, cloches, etc., you might want to seed your cukes a bit later in the season and in larger cups at the start and only transplant once into the garden because their root don't like to be disturbed. Cukes only need about 3 weeks of growth before they're ready to plant out and you need to figure on at least a week of that for the hardening off process. They won't be happy outside until the soil warms up in May sometime.

You can start introducing your plants to sunlight any time you can find a warm sheltered spot outside. It takes at least a week to 10 days of gradually giving them more light and exposure to wind and the colder temps of night before they're sturdy enough to make the transition to the garden. I like to put them in the sun as soon as the temps are warm enough- this year they haven't made it outside yet!

After over 25 years using a tiller once in the fall and once in the spring, we just use a broadfork now, partly because of the worms.

kath
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