On Thu, 5 Jul 2007 09:43:01 -0700, "Ook" Ook Don't send me any
freakin' spam at zootal dot com delete the Don't send me any freakin'
spam wrote:

You can't move the cukes,

My goodness, that is very "definite"!

Yes, and for a reason . Cukes are very very un-forgiving of having their
roots disturbed. As Ann said, if you dig up a huge rootball and if the
plants are young enough, you can get away with it. At the stage yours are
at, I'm not sure how big that root ball would have to be, probably quite
large, and you would have to be carefull that the root ball is intact and
does not shift internally. If you damage too many of the roots, the cukes
won't recover. Try it - dig up one or two, try a 12" rootball, and see how
it does. I have a feeling that 12" is not big enough, you may have to go out
18" or more.

I moved a small sunflower yesterday by digging up a 6" rootball. Poor thing
didn't last through the day. I would not have thought that sunflowers that
small would have that extensive of a root system already, but I was
apparently wrong. OTOH, tomatillos are hard to kill - I've pulled them out
and dropped them on the ground, and they survived and continued to grow.

Where are you?

I'm in So. Calif coastal, Zone 24/8.

Maybe the difference in locations has a bearing?

Lebanon, Oregon. Summers are hotter here then in the So. Ca. coastal zones,
but winter starts earlier. OTOH, if you are close enough to the coast, you
don't get much of a summer as it is. So, if you are not too close to the
water, it is not too late to plant short season corn. I don't know how well
corn does in the foggy cool wet beachfront weather.

Thanks for follow. I really did not know what you and Ann told me
about cukes getting upset at transplanting too late in the game.
Will experiment with several, as you suggest.

Our coastal climate down here is not really "foggy cool wet". During
May and June, it tends to be overcast night & morning (they call it
"June gloom") but the rest of the year it's sunny. TOO sunny! We
have had practically zilch rain for two years. Menacing!

People don't realize that the LA area is a desert, which became a huge
city only by dint of stealing water from the Owens valley.* Took
nearly a century to get LA to admit wrong and start minor
amelioration; meantime, Owens Valley had turned into a dust bowl.
There is very interesting populist history about this situation; the
aqueduct was blown up nine times by Owens Valley people who were irate
at getting screwed.

*And the "Chinatown" story of Mulholland bringing the water over the
mountains.

Persephone