Too late for cukes?

I haven't yet gotten around to planting my cucumber and melon seeds here in 6a (no good reason...just...didn't get around to it). Is it now too late, or might I be able to get some fruit anyway? (If not, no big deal...it was my own darn fault! :) )

pam

I think you have time if you can get them to germinate. I used to plant a fall crop of cucumbers here in the same zone. I think I'd mulch the row with straw to keep the bed wet better. I have to do that here a lot even in the spring because part of my garden crusts so bad.

You have plenty of time phuggins. I've started seed here in NJ as late as mid July. In this very warm weather they germinate in 3-4 days and grow like weeds. Just give them plenty of water and watch out for mildew in damp or humid weather

Rich

That's good to know! I started a bunch of cukes but lost most of them after planting out (I didn't realize they were in trouble because they were under row cover, oddly enough to protect them LOL). I'm going to start some more from my remaining seeds, and I think they'll have plenty of time to grow & produce.

In fact, since I have problems here with cucumber mosaic, I think the late start may end up being a good thing. The row cover is to protect them from the little white butterflies that (I think) carry the virus... ordinarily, you can take the row cover off by the time the cukes start blooming, and the butterflies' season is over by then. If I start cukes indoors for a late round of planting, I'm thinking I might not even need to cover them, depending on how the timing works out.

Hi critter...I used to start my cucumbers indoors for planting out late May to early June but have found that for me at least I have much better plants by direct seeding into my EB's. Cucumbers and Squash seem to dislike any root disturbance so I lose maybe a week or two till first harvest but the yields more than make up for the extra wait. My only problem with them is powdery mildew if the weather turns humid and damp.

Rich

I don't have EBs, and for the most part direct seeding into garden hills seems to result is loss of new sprouts to slugs, bunnies, etc. Of course, planting out starts didn't go so well this year, LOL.

edited to add that most folks around here direct seed their cukes and it works just fine as you've said...

Do you trellis your cukes? Better air circulation might help with the powdery mildew.



This message was edited Jun 21, 2006 11:40 PM

Not at all. I usually do at least 2 successive sowings of cukes anyway, sowing the first bunch in late April/early May and the second bunch in roughly July after some of the earlier summer/spring crops are done and there's room to spare in the garden.