📌 Quick Summary (TL;DR): Mid-May Garden Updates
- 🌧️ The Waterlogged Garden: While some regions suffer from spring heatwaves, others are drowning. Persistently cold, waterlogged soil causes bulbs (like daffodils) to rot and prevents greenhouse crops from establishing roots.
- 🥒 Cucumber Transplant Shock: If newly transplanted cucumbers look pale, wilt in the heat, and push out tiny new leaves, their roots are struggling. Pro Tip: Pinch off all early flowers (a technique called “blinding”) to force the plant to focus on root and foliage growth rather than fruiting.
- 🥔 Potato Cutting Hack: To maximize yield from limited seed potatoes, cut them into pieces containing only 1 or 2 “eyes” (sprouts). Plant up to 4 pieces in the corners of a single 8×8 inch (20×20 cm) hole. Cover lightly with soil, then hill them up as they grow.
Aleksan9ra (Ludmila) wrote:
My greenhouses are on the highest, driest, and sunniest spots. I love watering…
And here I am—I haven’t watered my greenhouse a single time since I planted my tomatoes on April 17th! Not because I’m trying to force deep roots, but because I desperately want the soil to dry out at least a little bit. The dampness is unbelievable. It just shows how different everyone’s microclimates are. 🌧️🌊
The sand in my greenhouse paths is wet, and only the very top crust of the soil has dried out. I am so sick of the rain. The outdoor soil is completely waterlogged; when you walk on the lawn, the water literally squishes out from under your feet. Various daffodils just rotted in the ground and didn’t bloom for the second year in a row. I dug them up and checked—almost all the bulbs were pure mush. 🥀
I think I’ve finally planted everything. Finished the beets and beans today, and transplanted the pumpkin seedlings a couple of days ago (they seem to have taken root). I removed all the low hoops and row covers. The cherry plums and sweet cherries are finishing their bloom, while the pears, tart cherries, and apples are just starting.
I also planted potatoes using the “Smorchkova method” (cutting the seed potatoes). You cut them so there is only 1, or maximum 2, sprouts (eyes) per piece, and you put no more than 4 sprouts in a single hole. You dig an 8×8 inch (20×20 cm) hole, place the pieces in the different corners, and cover them with about 4 inches (10 cm) of soil. After a week, you add another 4 inches to level it out.
It looks like I’ll have to re-sow the cucumbers in the greenhouse. They aren’t growing, the leaves wilt in the heat, and they look incredibly pale and sickly. I already watered them with a root stimulator (Radifarm) and gave them a dose of Calcium Nitrate today. The melons are also standing there looking like pale ghosts, but I only just transplanted them on the 11th. On the bright side, we are already eating greenhouse radishes, greens, and lettuce from transplants (I really loved transplanting lettuce, the heads are so massive already!). 🥗
Luda, my zucchini in the greenhouse is currently growing in a grow bag. Do you think I should transplant it into the actual ground? Will it get transplant shock? It’s my very last ‘Cavili’ seed. For some reason, the seeds I got this year were completely unviable… they just rotted in the soil instead of sprouting. 🥒
Anya, my zucchini didn’t even notice the transplant. BUT, the seedling was quite small and I made sure to take a very large root ball of dirt with it. I planted a tiny cucumber (still in its cotyledon stage) in the spot where the zucchini used to be.
My first two greenhouse cucumbers are already flowering. I know I should pinch off those early blossoms, but it’s just such a pity to do it! The very first true leaves on them turned yellow, so I pinched them off. I top-dressed the soil around the stems with granulated chicken manure. The new leaves are coming in dark green now, but they are still small. 🌱
I initially planted my watermelons and melons in the center bed, but they just sat there doing absolutely nothing. I dug them up, moved them to the east-facing bed, covered them with cut plastic bottles (cloches), and haven’t touched them since. In their place in the center bed, I planted 7 eggplants. 🍆
Finished the main cleanup in the tomato greenhouse today: tied them up, pruned the suckers, and weeded.
By the way, I tried planting potatoes using that cutting method, but only for one year. 🥔
Aleksan9ra (Ludmila) wrote:
My first two greenhouse cucumbers are already flowering. I know I should pinch off those early blossoms, but it’s just such a pity to do it!
That’s literally all I’ve been doing—pinching off tiny cucumbers and flowers! 😭
The new leaves on them are so much smaller than the ones they grew indoors. They are dark green, but you can clearly see that the roots aren’t working properly and the cucumbers are suffering from transplant shock. Those tiny leaves are barely growing. I didn’t have this problem last year; I planted them in the greenhouse even earlier, and they didn’t even notice the transplant. 🤷♀️
When a cucumber experiences severe transplant shock (especially in cold, waterlogged soil), its root system shuts down. However, the plant is genetically programmed to reproduce. It will stubbornly push out flowers and baby cucumbers even though its leaves are stunted and pale.If you don’t aggressively pinch off these early flowers, the plant will pour all its limited energy into trying to grow a cucumber it can’t support, permanently stunting the vine. By removing the flowers, you force the cucumber to redirect its energy back into establishing its root system!
