those dang flea beetles! I was on my porch one day looking at my beets and thought I saw a color change! I got up to take a close look and saw a mass of of them, I swear to god that in the 20 min from when I first looked at the beets from the porch and when I got up to take a closer look; the beet greens went from deep green to dull with a huge amount of damage, I sprayed poison to kill the Ba$%^*!@ and tossed everything in to the trash! What a waste.

Your ground needs to be warm before you plant out. Place your hands on the ground for a minute or so. If your hand feels chilled, it's too cold for cucs. If it feels "room temperature" or more, you can plant them out. I should think that once your seedlings have a couple of sets of true leaves, they'll be fine in the ground. Don't forget to harden them off outside for a few days before planting out. Get your ground ready. Dig your hole and gently ease the plants out of their pots and into the ground. Water instantly. They should do just fine.

camp, I didn't realize it either until researching online and on gardenweb. "What are these cabbage lopers of which you speak?" (what the heck is a loper?) ... OHHHHHH, those gross lil green caterpillars I keep seeing. Gotcha! This has been fun to read everyone's input. There are too many gems to point them out individually, but I've learned that not only are garden bloggers really nice and helpful (per thyme2garden) but they are pretty funny, too! It's too bad I try to share the humor with my non-gardening friends and family ... (um, ok, everyone not on here!) and they give me the blank "I don't get it," stare. Such is life. I highly recommend the archived "so you want to grow a gardenia" thread... I read that a few months ago and was CRYING it was so funny. (I didn't even know what a gardenia WAS until that thread.) And it has given me the courage to venture into growing flowers this coming year ... once I make the lasagna beds this fall for spring ... and build a few more trellises ... and flip my compost ... and ask the restaurant down the street for coffee grounds ... and.. and.. and.. :P Oh, btw. The tomatoes are starting (in case anyone was troubled by my plethora of non-ripening tomatoes.) ... The gardening gods like me (at the moment ;) ). Thanks again everyone for sharing - Veronica

OK, but I'd try to harvest a bit less mature. Only certain ethnic groups prefer mature cucs. I had one mature cuc of 4 bushels last Friday and so many people inquired about the seed size that it broke it in half to show the interior and then ate most of it. You can have nice sellable cucs in the 12-14" range but the diameter and general appearance matters most when people are selecting. If you provide great flavored cucs that don't need to be peeled you'll find that same customers will be returning and buying lots. I don't know if it helps sales but when customers tell me that they can only eat a few in a week I remind them that the are 94% water.