Todd wrote:
Hi All,

My zuke seeds I planted eight days ago are
starting to poke the through. Yes, I am a proud
father!

I planted them three seeds to a hole. To my
surprise, all three are coming through. (When
I planted them two to a hole only one or none

Questions:

1) I presume I am suppose to only leave one
per hole. Am I correct?

2) If I am to prune them out

a) I presume I leave the tallest one. Am I correct?

b) how big do I let them grow before pruning?
Two inches?

c) how do prune? Use scissors and snip them of at
the dirt line?

Many thanks,
-T

The amount of growth will be limited by competition for water, nutrients
and sun not the number of plants. If you left them all it would make
little difference to the total just each would be smaller. If you want to
thin them wait until the true leaves (not the cotyledons) appear and open,
then choose the healthiest one and cut off the others. The main thing here
is not to damage the chosen one.

It is said that you should only sow cucurbits directly as they resent
transplanting. What they resent is root disturbance. You can avoid this
problem and wasting seed by planting in tubes, the tapered square-section
plastic kind about 12 cm (5 in) tall, that sit in a rack. They are often
used to raise tree and shrub seedlings. Plant one seed per tube and plant
out when the true leaves open. With care the soil plug with roots and all
will slide out in one chunk and can be planted with no root disturbance.

D