Cucumber update and Epiphyllum news 🌿

 

All but one of my "Beth Alpha" cucumbers withered away . I sowed another lot and now I have three .

I bought a packet of another variety called "Party Time" which also produce a smaller size cucumber .

These came up pretty much over-night  and I always prick these type of seedlings out at this stage ....

 ......carefully gently holding one of the cotyledon leaves  .

The reason I do them so quickly at this stage is because as you can see here the roots have already become huge !  If I leave it until the first true leaf emerges then the roots are in danger of tangling up and getting damaged as I prick them out .  

 I guess you could sow them one seed to a 3" pot , but I wouldn't have space on my propagator !

This works for me .  

You can just  use a fork , teaspoon , a pencil or your fingers .....but ....

These little tools are so useful if you are doing lots of seed growing and they are quite cheap too .

The little fork is to gently prize up and pull apart your little seedlings roots . 

 I use this little dibber to make a perfect size and depth hole to drop that long root down into and gently fill in around the seedling with the compost .

  This compost is not the best , with sticks and nasty bits in it .  I will use a better quality compost when I come to put these young cucumber plants into their final pot/bags  under the bench on the other side of the greenhouse . 

I gave them good drink of water to settle them in and I'll be feeding both the tomatoes and cucumbers , from time to time , as they begin to flower .

Today I also potted up my Sweet Peppers into their final pots .

I am shuffling all the plants around in the greenhouse to make room for the Sweet Peppers, Cucumbers and Tomatoes . 

My greenhouse is primarily for my Cacti , Epiphyllums and other strange and fascinating plants .

 The Epies , some of which belonged to my Grandmother .

 They didn't bloom at all last year because I had moved them to a different location , while we were trying to solve the problems with the new greenhouse leaking roof . ( Let's not go there ! )

Anyway...

 Epies prefer not to me moved about , especially while they are forming their new buds .

I can see lots of new growth .

I need to fix up more shade netting , they really don't like bright hot sun . I have them on the North side of the greenhouse . Soon the cucumber vines will be scrabbling about in amongst them which will provide more shade .

                                Oh ! My ! I can see buds !

I will give all the Epies a good tidy up after they finish blooming . Prune , repot and take cuttings.

                                 Oh ! Wow !  There's another gorgeous bud !  🤍🌿

                                                        Watch this space ! 

                                                             🌿 ☀️🌿