On Friday, June 6, 2014 8:21:08 PM UTC-7, David Hare-Scott wrote:
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.

Have never seen this Up Here. Any USA-ians know about product, what it's called, and where get it?

TIA

HB