Experimenting with Cucumber Radical Orientation in the Greenhouse

In addition to looking at the recent progress of my little cucumber varieties that I am growing in the greenhouse, I take a look at an experiment in whether the radical direction of cucumber seeds in determines success in growing. While all the seeds I am working with in the experiment were fairly vigorous and able to push off their seed coat, weak seed would not have been able to. With weaker cucurbit seed, putting the radical down will often result in seedling death, because they do not have the energy to push off the hard seed coat. This is why I prefer to plant all my newly sprouted seeds with the radical up so that the seedling can pull its leaves out of the seed coat in the moist soil, instead of exerting energy to push the hard dry seed coat off above the surface of the soil.

[@ScaryFear]

Love the leaves of the cucumis angorias. Very interesting about planting them up or down. Nice little master tip there. I wonder if that would work with gourds Lagenaria. But they have such a hard seed you have to file it a lot. I love seeing your set up too.

[@ofrecentvintage]

Also, do you worry about root disturbance when separating soil blocked cucumber seedlings? I constantly hear about cucurbit root sensitivity and I'm worried about stunting transplants during the planting out process.

[@CucumberShop]

Producing soil blocks can be difficult enough to do even with a pre-made mix. I would not encourage anyone to start soil blocking unless they had a lot of time to learn or money to just purchase a pre-made mix. If the grower can figure out that they have a good healthy mix and knows how to block the soil well, the rest should follow. As seedlings grow in the soil blocks, their roots expand to take up the entire soil block. The ideal time to transplant is when the Roots come to the end of the block and have not yet attempted to cross over into their neighboring blocks. The larger the roots of the transplant, the better the block is held together and the less chance it will fall apart when being transplanted out into the garden. Using soil blocks is not a 100% method for success. Sometimes in the process of transplanting they fall apart because of the materials used, moisture level, or user error. Sometimes even soil blocks will experience a slight amount of root shock after being transplanted. Overall, the work and time required for soil blocking is more than compensated by being able to start plants earlier or have transplants ready to plant the moment after another crop is removed from a plot.

[@ofrecentvintage]

@@CucumberShop Thanks for sharing your insights and all of these details. I thought soil blocking might be a solution to some of my seed starting challenges but I think I may have to find other solutions for now. I appreciate your generosity with your expertise. 🙏🏾

[@CucumberShop]

@@ofrecentvintage I believe that it is the very best solution for starting transplants early, but it does require time and effort to learn. Though expensive, the larger Swiftblockers greatly reduce the time and effort required to make soil blocks easy and quickly.

[@ofrecentvintage]

Given your experience and level of cucumber expertise, do you mind sharing whether you recommend growing more than one cucumber plant in a container? If so, can you recommend what size pot? Thank you 🥒

[@CucumberShop]

Thanks for the question of containers and planting multiple plants per pot. Containers are a difficult subject. I would not plant multiple plants per container unless the container was at least 10 gallons or more. I only grow in smaller containers when I'm testing something out or growing in my greenhouse. Otherwise, my smallest plot is a 1 cubic yard grape harvest bin. This is because cucumbers, though they don't strip fertility from the soil as extensively as tomato vines, do require a lot of soil. Additionally, the roots of most vegetables are sensitive to the sides of the pot being cooked by the sun in our above 90 degree Fahrenheit days. With all this, if I was serious about growing cucumbers, I would want a container as big as possible. If not, at least sheltering the sides of the pot from direct sun (while still providing full sun to the actual plant) is preferable.

[@ofrecentvintage]

@@CucumberShop Thank you for such a thorough answer. I appreciate it. Going to have to jot these points in my garden journal. One plant it is!