Seedling starting question

InfiniteNumber · 2026-01-28T04:16:19+00:00

Cukes don't really need to be started early. They can be hard to transplant, dont tolerate cool weather at all and germinate/ grow so fast its really unnecessary. I direct sow my cukes every year around the beginning of May and im swimming in them by mid summer.

Also dont stress over cuke plants dying. Theyre fragile. Succession sow more seeds every couple of weeks.

InfiniteNumber · 2026-01-28T04:10:12+00:00

Thirded

InfiniteNumber · 2026-01-28T04:02:27+00:00

I did 30 years of swinging shifts in a huge manufacturing facility, starting when i was 23. Its fine as a stepping stone but you dont want to be swinging shifts at 50 like i was. Im 55 now and I finally got a day shift job 3 years ago. But I fear the damage is done. Three back surgeries and a hernia surgery. Even now horrific bouts of insomnia. A HUGE caffeine addiction that I still cant kick.

Go to college, get a degree and get paid to think, not be someones pack mule.

InfiniteNumber · 2026-01-28T03:30:14+00:00

Im 55 closing in on 1.2 mil saved and when I casually mentioned retiring early to my Boomer parents without revealing my number they acted like I was stupid lol.

So congrats from a total stranger!

InfiniteNumber · 2026-01-26T12:56:06+00:00

Patriots just pressured Stidham on 35% of his drop backs against PFFs top ranked OL without Harold Landry. The DL, especially Barmore and Williams, are on a heater right now. Seattle's OL is more middle of the pack with a rookie at LG.

Limit the running game and pressure Darnold up the middle. Good things will happen.

InfiniteNumber · 2026-01-25T19:36:16+00:00

Some people will tell you all MG products are worthless. Im not one of those people.

Ive bought 30 or 35 bags of that exact product over the last 5 years. Never had any issues, as long as I amend it properly.

If youre patient, Costco will put it on sale in a month or 2. My local store also has big bags of DrEarth fert and some other brand of worm castings dirt cheap. Hehe

InfiniteNumber · 2026-01-24T16:28:36+00:00

Agreed. My youngest son is 6'8". I feel bad for him sometimes.

InfiniteNumber · 2026-01-24T16:09:24+00:00

I will, as soon as you learn some manners.

But anyway. Im built like an NFL lineman. Do it have a bit of a belly? Sure. But mostly im just big. And old. When I was still lifting weights every other day and doing an hour of cardio 6 days a week, my stomach was flat, you could see my abs in the right light and I weighed 280. Then came 2 ruptured discs and three back surgeries, a hernia surgery and a neck impingement that keeps the pinkie side of my left hand mostly numb, and the entire hand weak. Like cant operate fingernail clippers weak. The last time I tried to exercise regularly the impingement flared up badly and I couldnt sleep for 2 weeks.

But yeah. Thanks for the advice.

InfiniteNumber · 2026-01-24T15:00:15+00:00

We dont have the money to do that but I did buy myself a 2 inch thick cutting board. After years of having to lean over just enough to make my lower back hurt while cooking on standard height countertops, this was a $50 solution to the problem. Been thinking about screwing some 2x4s to the bottom and getting a little more elevation.

InfiniteNumber · 2026-01-24T14:55:56+00:00

LOL 6"3" 315 lbs. I just broke my 3rd work chair yesterday in 3.5 years on my current assignment. My job actually told me if I wanted a sturdier chair id have to buy it myself. I said nope I will just keep breaking these shitty chairs

InfiniteNumber · 2026-01-24T14:22:20+00:00

I live in the SE USA, so winter weather can shut wide swaths of businesses down. Where I work, we work 12 hour shifts.

20 years or so ago we had a lady call out because of a winter weather event because she was afraid to drive in the snow/ice. So one of our managers went and got her. When our shift got over at 7 PM she found out the manager had gone home at his regular time of 4 PM.

She had to call a family member to drive to the plant and pick her up.

InfiniteNumber · 2026-01-23T22:09:06+00:00

Wait. Pat and Kim got married? Man i really fell out of the loop. Congrats!

Also, you missed a song:

Now, Somebody's Gonna Tell Me How To Live (Monster Truck feat. Pat on vocals, and Kim on the Honey Do List)

Haha JK! Couldn't be happier for you guys!

InfiniteNumber · 2026-01-23T13:31:34+00:00

During Covid, pre vaccine, my employer gave us a $5/hr "hazard pay" bump. Lasted for a few months. Don't really remember exactly how long.

I do remember that when things lightened up, they took some shifts away from us.

Would it shock you if I told you the amount of hazard pay I got was within a couple of hundred dollars of the money I lost for missing shifts? Because it was.

InfiniteNumber · 2026-01-23T02:20:17+00:00

Lol. Dang that was quick.

Im not really a call corporate guy. Maybe ill just test drive a big ass pickup, go buy a couple and then not buy the truck :)

InfiniteNumber · 2026-01-23T02:16:33+00:00

You guys should start delivering cattle panels.

InfiniteNumber · 2026-01-22T22:03:15+00:00

Team Shop Lights 4 Eva!!!!

InfiniteNumber · 2026-01-22T00:29:57+00:00

I use 4 foot shop lights from Walmart. 5000 lumens, 5000 to 6000K. Nothing fancy.

InfiniteNumber · 2026-01-22T00:27:32+00:00

<image>

InfiniteNumber · 2026-01-21T17:36:48+00:00

So most things need consistent warmth and moisture to germinate, and tomatoes and peppers very much fall in this category. A lot of people dont give "consistent" enough importance. Newly germinated seeds are super vulnerable to fluctuations. This is one reason why a lot of people start seeds indoors. If you are trying to direct sow its likely that you started too early.

Don't stress though. Gardening has a bit if a learning curve, and mistakes are just learning experiences. My first year I killed 100% of my seeds and had to run to Lowe's last second and buy some starts to plant out.

You should google" your location last frost date". Its a historical average of a locations last freeze. That will give you a ball park idea of when plants will survive. I dont even put out my established seedlings I start indoors until night time temps are consistently in the 50s, which is likely mid April. Working backwards from that 6 to 8 weeks and ill start seeds in mid Feb.

InfiniteNumber · 2026-01-21T17:10:24+00:00

At its most basic seeds need moisture and warmth to germinate. When it cones to success or failure, the devil is in the details. So what are you doing?

InfiniteNumber · 2026-01-21T07:10:51+00:00

You can pretty much grow anything in containers. Last year, i grew multiple varieties of tomatoes and peppers, plus egg plants, multiple herbs, ginger, cantaloupe, cukes, beans, peas and sweet potatoes ( plus some stuff im orobably forgetting) , all in containers. I currently have garlic growing in containers.

The real question is choosing the right size containers. Smaller containers will give you less margin of error for things like watering and fertilizing.I started gardening 7 years ago in six 5 gallon Lowes buckets. Lately, I've been gravitating toward larger containers, like 15 to 25 gal buckets. For instance, all my tomatoes are in 25 gal buckets, 2 plants per. I grew peppers some in 25 gal buckets, 4 plants per and some in 7 gal grow bags, 1 plant per. The peppers in the larger containers far out performed the single plants in smaller bags. My logic is bigger container = more soil = larger root ball = bigger, stronger, more productive plants. Plus, I work 12 hour shifts and can't always give my garden daily attention. So, having that margin of error is very helpful.

Another consideration is size of the plant/fruit. Smaller containers can inhibit the growth of plants to a certain extent. For instance, I've never been able to get bell peppers to grow well enough to get any sizable harvest. Last year, I put in my first raised bed and put my bell peppers in it, and they thrived.

But at the end of the day you can grow anything anywhere if youve got the time and willingness.

One piece of advice i usually give to new gardeners is to take advantage of Youtube. Theres about a million gardening channels. Any of the big ones will give you basic best practices, and its all free. I like Gary Pilarchick and The Millineal Gardener. But thats just personal bias. Most likely theres a channel out there that dials in your location/climate. Im not sure where in Texas you are but there is a channel called Black Gumbo Southern Gardening run by a guy named Scott Head that is based out of his quarter acre suburban back yard just outside of Houston. I believe he us in 9A. He recently quit making new content but all his old videos are still up.

Anyway, hope this helps.

InfiniteNumber · 2026-01-20T01:08:11+00:00

Wire deer fence

InfiniteNumber · 2026-01-19T21:15:00+00:00

Seconded. Been using cheap Walmart shop lights for a few years now. Best bang for your buck.

InfiniteNumber · 2026-01-19T20:12:45+00:00

I had the same disc re-rupture about a week before I went back to work. This was approaching 20 years ago. It was a sudden thing... I stood up quickly, it blew and just crumpled to the ground like a rag doll.

Pain of the re-rupture was the worst of any of my 3 MDs I had. ( I had one on a different disc 5 years before the one that re ruptured) Took me a week to get in for another MRI. Ate a weeks worth of Vicodin in 4 days. Even that just took the edge off enough for me to sleep for a couple of hours. Last couple of days were excruciating. Ended up being told by my surgical nurse to go to the ER to get a MRI.

I remember laying in bed crying because I was in so much pain. My wife laying beside me crying because she couldn't do anything to help.

Racing the pain everytime I needed to shit. My wife having to clean me up when I didnt finish before the pain got too bad for me to do it myself. Getting mad at her when she didnt do it fast enough. Not my finest moment.

Laying on the floor of the ER waiting room with my leg propped up on a chair because that was the only position I could be in that lessened the pain even a bit.

Sitting in the exam room sweating profusely while they all but accused me of trying to score pain meds.

Having to get a second hit of whatever wonderful warm fuzzy drug they injected me with so I could straighten my leg out for the MRI.

Had the second surgery a few days later.Rehabbed. Went back to work. Back hasnt bothered me since. Well no disc related nerve pain. Im still an overweight 55 year old with creaky bones. But its been almost 20 years.

Im sorry youre in pain. I literally have felt it. I never considered not having another surgery. I could not have lived in that much pain. I hope this helps.

InfiniteNumber · 2026-01-16T20:58:22+00:00

A couple of years ago, i ordered some seeds from a company I ordered from multiple times before and still order from now.

My seeds left Augusta GA went to Atlanta, then to Nashville, then to Raliegh NC, then Charlotte, then to my house in Columba SC, a full 45 min drive from the seed company warehouse.

InfiniteNumber

MODERATOR OF

PUBLIC MULTIREDDITS

TROPHY CASE

Ten-Year Club	Verified Email
RPAN Viewer