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drewski_

Quick! When do cucumbers normally begin growing vines?

Drewski_
10 years ago

This is my 1st time using fertilizer & have yet to bust it open.
Only stuff I put in my garden's dirt from the beginning, was topsoil and decaying fruit & veggies, which I later figured gave me a LOT of earthworms later on. I know I likely don't need it (since my garden did well without it last year), but I really wanna it out, especially since it's organic fert. (Jobe's Organic's Veg. & Tomato; granular; 2-5-3)

My cukes are the biggest things growing so far, and I don't know when vines are supposed to start "running" (I planted them EXACTLY 1 month ago).
So someone tell me when I can lay it out, cuz it's kinda burning my hands (figuratively speaking..lol), and I'm ready to get to digging.

Comments (6)

  • planatus
    10 years ago

    You won't see a dramatic difference with the 2-5-3 because it's so mild, so go ahead and scratch in a little. You will start seeing climbing tendrils any day. Crowding may be holding the plants back. I sometimes let two plants stand together, but never more than that. I count four in the front clump, needs to be one or two, and on down the row.

  • digdirt2
    10 years ago

    Agree that you need to thin those out and that granular 2-5-3 can be used to side dress most anytime so it isn't an urgent issue for any reason..

    But vine development will also depend on the variety you planted and you don't mention that. Not all cukes are the same.

    Dave

  • Drewski_
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    I've been reading about transplanting/thinning & how space helps the plants grow to their full potential, but truthfully, I wanted em to get just a liiiiiittle bigger before I move em around though. There's a cuke plant, bout 2-3 inches tall at the time (not yet pictured) that I transplanted it a little while ago & it's STILL trying to recover =/
    I'm a cautious fella...but they're all getting bigger, so I know what I need to do. And btw, they are indeed bunched about 4-6 plants per group (the amount of seeds I put in each mound)

    It kinda sucks, cuz I wanna do it all at once this morning (transplant, thin, fertilize, & water), but transplants are a tad dangerous under the full sun, so I'll let them get this good sunshine (at last, after all this RAIN!). I'll just go weed, water & work on the netting/barrier to keep these effin squirrels away (I left an opening in the net and they chewed a couple pumpkin seeds that didn't quite sprout yet -__- )

    And, they're Sumter & Marketmore cucumbers, Dave.

  • digdirt2
    10 years ago

    Cukes aren't normally transplanted. They don't take to it at all well and even if they do recover are easily stunted.

    Normally you plant 3-4 seeds per hill and then thin to the 2 best. You thin by pulling or just snipping off at soil level. The longer you leave them over crowded the leggier the plants gets, the more the roots become entangled, and the slower their development.

    You want more plants, just plant more hills to begin with.

    Both varieties will get to be quite huge plants with rampant vines once you UN-crowd them. I assume you plan to trellis them somehow?

    Dave

  • ltilton
    10 years ago

    Drewski - the bigger they get, the more they won't transplant. What people are saying you need to do now is cut all but one* of those off entirely. They're too big to pull out, you'd damage the roots of the ones you want to keep.

    *I say one because you have others planted at what looks like 4" apart in a row.

  • AiliDeSpain
    10 years ago

    It's hard to thin but it must be done. I would cut at soil level so you don't disturb the other plants roots