Planting Fall Cucumbers with Benjamin

After our cucumber crop got absolutely decimated by worms and we didn't get to put up many jars of pickles, I consulted a vegetable gardening - month by month guide that louisiananursery.com publishes and found that August was still a good time to plant cucumbers for the Fall.  I quickly assembled my seeds, dirt, seed pots and planted Boston Pickling Cucumbers, Organic Pickling Cucumbers and Japanese Long Green Cucumbers.  I like the first two in the list because they are smaller size and crisp.  I like the latter because they are long and the seeds remain small.

The seeds all germinated at a very high percentage and I've been nurturing them on the back patio waiting for the most opportune time to transplant them in the soil.  It has either been scorching hot or soaking wet with rain every time I want to plant.  As I watered them yesterday, the cucumbers were sending out little tendrils that they use to attach to the structure they climb on.  It is time to get them in the ground!

Fall Cucumber Seedlings Grown from Seeds

I called Benjamin to come give me a hand.  I think that it is important to get young people involved in Agriculture and seeing the miracle of plant growth and the satisfaction that you get from growing and eating food that you produced.  Getting your hands dirty is a big plus, too!  We cleared a patch between the panels I use for the cucumbers to trellis on and the shallots.  The jungle-like growth on the other side of the panel is our sweet potato crop that comes up on its own each year.  The vines are really growing and so are the sweet potatoes beneath the soil.  I've seed some nice ones!

A spot for cucumbers

Benjamin is using an old knife rescued from a Good Will store to dig the holes for planting the cucumber seedlings.  Red electrical tape wrapped around the handle ensures that we'll never lose it!

Digging the hole

We pop the seedlings out of the seed pots and insert into the hole.  Most seed pots have two cucumber seedlings in them as insurance against poor germination.  Since cucumbers vine, we don't have to worry about overcrowding, so we don't thin out one of them.

Setting the plants in the hole

We add some soil to the hole and then straighten the seedlings up and lean them against the trellis so that we begin training them to attach themselves to the panels and grow upward.  If you don't do this, they'll run along the ground and get all tangled up in the shallots and sweet potatoes.

Adding dirt to the hole

Then we water the plant with about three handfuls of rainwater we've captured in a bucket and we pull some partially composted hay to cover the dirt.  We do this for several reasons.  First, the hay mulch acts as a barrier to thwart weed growth that might compete with the cucumber. Second, the hay mulch assists in keeping the sun from quickly evaporating the water in the soil.  This is important during the hot summer weather we're still experiencing.  Finally, that hay mulch will decompose and become part of the soil structure next year.  We always like to add organic matter to the soil.

Mulching with hay

With some favorable weather and a respite from bug and worm infestations, I might still be able to get some pickles canned.  And maybe, just maybe, I'll infest Benjamin with the same 'agriculture bug' that got me when my Grandpa and Dad introduced me to farming.