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Is separating cucumber seedlings while potting up a fool's errand? (lemmy.ml)
submitted 6 months ago by to c/gardening@lemmy.world
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I saw some tips around sowing multiple seeds per cell so at least one seed germinates in each cell, and then one either thins the weaker seedlings or carefully separates them while potting them up. I'm still very early in my gardening education, so I thought that's cool, I'll take this approach for my cucumber starts b/c hey why not, and since the thought of thinning seedlings kinda kills my soul, I'll just carefully separate them when I pot them up; however, everything I'm now reading about cucumbers is that they don't transplant well and they're more sensitive to root shock than other crops like tomatoes and peppers. Is thinning each cell down to one the way to go for these cucumber starts or is there hope for my soul? Not that I even have enough pots to move them all into anyway, but where there's a will there's a way...

Further reading/watching:

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[–] 1 point 6 months ago

For most people, transplanting cucumbers is a waste of time. Reason: you generally don't make the harvest any earlier than direct seeding. Cucumbers are finicky to transplant and it's generally isn't worth it unless you are geowinf them in a greenhouse and know what you are doing. Commercially almost 100% of open field production is direct seeded (100% of greenhouse production is transplanted).

If it is warm enough outside, transplant them immediately. Don't worry about thinning them, give them a little bit more space per hill and they will do fine. Make sure to do it in the evening and water them well.

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