A month behind schedule for planting corn, on-target for cucumbers

Approximately 30 Wisconsin SMR 58 cucumber seeds

Cucumbers like heat and sulk when they are cold. I pre-germinated the seeds on a water-soaked, paper pad on a dinner plate which I placed on a warming/germination mat. I twiddled with the thickness of the newspapers beneath the plate until the temperatures wandered between 80F and 90F.

The main roots were about 2" long when I transplanted them. Unlike some other types of garden seeds, the roots did not penetrate into the paper towels. I picked the little balloons from the paper towels, laid them in the furrow and scraped a little bit of dirt over them.

I found out that using a one-gallon milk jug allows for much more precision in the placement of water. I planted the cucumber seeds about 12" apart in this row.

 

I also planted 30' of dill row, 4 X 24' rows of Pink Hopi maize, 4 X 24' rows Montana Morado maize, 2 X 24' rows of Wapsie Valley maize today.

Planting 300 feet of row in the garden is not a bad day's work for a recovery day.

It might rain today (Wednesday)

Part of my reason for hustling to get seeds in the ground. The weather-guessers are predicting about an inch of rain.

If we get that much, it will be three days before I can get back on the garden due to soil compacting risks.