Plant in mounds or rows, as you prefer. If rows, plant every 4", thinning to 1 plant per foot. Mounds should be 1Â to 2Â apart with 6 seedlings on each mound thinned to 3 per mound. Another HIGHLY recommended method is to plant with a trellis. Cucumbers grow straighter and are easier to see when harvesting with this method. Use recommended row spacing and tie the main stem to the trellis with string or twist ties. (If growing in a container, you can place the container next to a tall trellis, or insert a 2Â-3Â trellis inside the container.)

From left to right: Fafard 3B Fafard 3B 1 bag 3B + 1 bag pine bark fines 1 bag 3B + 1 bag pine bark fines 1 bag 3B + 2 bags of pine bark fines 1 bag 3B + 2 bags of pine bark fines 70% coconut coir + 30% perlite (I normally don't start any scotch bonnet pepper plants in the summer (it is too hot, buggy, and rainy) but this year thought I would give it a shot plus do more in the fall. They last longer than 1 season. We don't get freezes.) Here is just a sampling of some of them. Fafard 3B --great right out of the bag Actually had flowers and now fruit way ahead of others by 7 or 8 days. They have the greatest height and most dense foliage. One of the 4 plants I did with 2 to 1 ratio (PB to 3B) is just as tall and full but one is much shorter for some reason. I expect all of the extra pine bark component ones to do well. The 2 PB to 1 Fafard 3B ratio should be good over the long haul. (They also make a mix called Fafard 52 which I only was able to find once. It was 60% bark.) Fafard 3B is 45% peat and 30% pine bark (one site said 25 % pine bark). I am hoping this also will hold up well --I have used peat based mixes with no pine bark with good results so the pine bark should make it even better as the mix degrades. Coir is plugging along--not quite up to speed with the others but still doing OK. It is the final one of the group. The transplants seedlings I did in coir did awful. There are very good potting mixes on the market and pre mixed makes it super easy . Or buy your own ingredients and mix yourself--that can work equally as well too. Your choice. For many annuals like vegetables --longevity of the mix if you are dumping in raised bed after one season or not reusing is not all that crucial as long as the mix is well draining but nutrient retentive as well. L.O. Can you post pics of your vegetables in the gritty mix? How many times do you expect to reuse?

Currently, mine are doing quite well since I just started to pick a few days ago. They were slow in starting (planted seeds May 25), but a couple of recent kelp sprays has taken that to the next level. With lots of rain the last two days and a hurried picking early this morning I got a few bigger good sized ones so far. Soil nutrients are a major factor in the plants growth, Most all farmers are crop rotators too. Without ammendments, soil testing, and rotating crop areas, All these conditions will soon create very hostile areas. Tomatoes and peppers, for instance, can grow quite well for a few years in the same spot. But once a blite happens, its going to spell peril for any future plantings in that same spot, maybe for years to come. The same holds true for cukes and many other water loving plants. There are many organic based soil improvers out there, and activators that can help improve a container soil, but to what extent each can reach can only depend on very specific conditions. NPK is just not he basics anymore. Poor growth and dying plants, need to get the stuff under their 'feet' tested, and very soon. Obviously now is not a good time to mess with soil quality due to possible (?) active growth. But after the summer, get a GOOD soil test done. Iron, calcium, magnesium zinc, copper, and so many micro-nutrients, the list can go on and on. Labs are the ONLY way to get a good concise soil test done. I would expect that my garden would suffer this year has I not know that nitrogen was only at 8% of normal. That was the spring. After almost 200 pounds of cotton seed meal and feather meal, it has been really good. Three years ago, yellowing weak plants. Again a good soil test and it showed absolutely NO iron. I added 300 pounds of iron sulfate and a 50 pound bag of lime (counteracts the acid lowering). Its been perfect for the last 3 years now. Gardening can be easy, if its done right, and planned well ahead of time.

This is all just semantics. Don't get so hung up on labels and terms as it only confuses the issue. Canning isn't a world of purists when it comes to labels. In the case of pickle recipes they are just cucumbers fermenting/soaking/sitting in some sort of liquid with various ingredients. There are "brines" made of just salt and water, there are "brines" made of water and vinegar, and there are "brines" made of all three plus all sorts of spices and herbs. I've seen recipes calling for brining the cukes for up to 24 hours in salt water (no vinegar) and then draining, That isn't "brined" just pre-soaking to draw water out of the cukes. Sure you may never have seen many "brined" pickles recipes - recipes where cucumbers are soaked in a cool environment for days or even weeks or months in a mixed brine of vinegar, salt, and water. But they do exist, lots of them. Old country store barrel pickles are a good example. The old giant jar of pickles on the deli counter is another. Many of the old "brined pickle" recipes are no longer considered safe due to listeria research but they still exist. Some of them evolved into what are now called "refrigerator pickles", some of them became what are now called "quick-pack" pickles, and some of them went more to the "fermentation" method with higher levels of salt and none or only a tablespoon or so of vinegar to slow (it doesn't stop) bacteria development. Dave