I planted cucumbers and corn together, thinking that the cucumbers would twine around the corn stalks as they grew.
Instead -- and maybe because I planted too thickly -- the corn is going gang busters, but is shading the cucumbers. Little cukes are forming, but I am concerned about the perceived lack of sunshine.
So I have a BIG DECISION to make:
Do I move some of the corn to let more light in on the cukes?
Or do I move the cukes and figure out some other way of training them up.
IOW, which is likely to be more upset by the transplanting?
You can't move the cukes, and if the corn is big enough to shade them, you can't move it either. AFAIK, you can't transplant either. I've done this before, and the cukes just didn't make it without sun. If you leave it all alone, the corn will do fine and you will get few if any cukes. Only the cukes that grow out of the south end of the corn patch will produce.
I just last week planted some short season corn. 59 day stuff, I figure it will be ripe the first week of September, which is still good corn growing season around here. Depending on where you live, you might be able to remove some of the corn so that they cukes get sun, and maybe plant some short season corn somewhere else.
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.
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.
How big were they? How big of a rootball did you move? It can be done, you just have to dig up enough of an intact root system to prevent the plant from shutting down. I will be the first to admit to not knowing how big that has to be.
Less than an inch but were in a hanging pot and needed moving. Checked them this evening and they are almost 3 inches. I just scooped with two hands and took what came with.
That size has a manageable rootball. You'd be surprised how big it would be now. Most cucurbits hate any root disturbance and will let you know it by dying!
Yes, a common issue with growing vines up corn stalks.
In the case of beans, there are bean varieties which are specifically advertised for being more shade-tolerant than usual, just for growing up corn stalks (for example, at
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).
Not that this helps you before next year, of course...
I have always started cukes this way and never had a problem. My yard is very small. I live in a retirement community that does not permit vegetable gardens? God knows why? You have to sneak them amongst the flowers.
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