Corn shading cucumber

 
Sigh - I think I'm hoist on my own petard.

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?

Persephne

 
<Persephone> wrote in message

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.

 On Wed, 4 Jul 2007 18:17:50 -0700, "Ook" <Ook Don't send me any
freakin' spam at zootal dot com delete the Don't send me any freakin'
spam> wrote:


My goodness, that is very "definite"!

Hellow, NG members -- Has anyone on this NG ever moved cukes?

Straight question.

 and if the corn is big enough to shade them, you

Where are you?

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

Maybe the difference in locations has a bearing?

. If you leave it all

 Depending on where you live, you might be able to remove

Awaiting your reply...

Persephone

 Persephone expounded:


When they are very small with a huge rootball, yes.  At the stage your
plants are at - no way.
--
Ann, gardening in Zone 6a
South of Boston, Massachusetts
e-mail address is not checked
******************************

 
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.