Newbie questions

[littlekrb]

My garden is in full swing and I have some questions.

I have never planted squash before. I planted yellow straight neck, zucchini, and butternut seed 11 days ago. I water every time the soil is dry an inch below the surface. None of the seeds have come up. Should I be worried? I also planted cucumbers, which have not come up. And I did finally see. Green beam seed poking up from the ground today. I thought seeds only took a week to germinate?

For the squash plants, do I train these upward like a cucumber plant or do you let them sprawl out?

I have blossoms starting to bloom on my pepper plants, which I transplanted 4 days ago. They are only about a foot tall. Do I let this go or should I pinch them off?

Any recommendations on where to buy good tomato cages? The tallest ones the hardware store sells are 56" tall and my tomato plants got like 7 ft tall last year.

My cauliflower and broccoli are starting to show up (about the size of a marble). Do I need to do anything to cover them up? I read somewhere you need to tie the leaves together, wondering if that's necessary.

Zone 5 Missouri.

[TZ -OH6]

You can train the squash up a trellis if you want. I have grown butternut on a trellis before. If they are bush varieties it might not work.

I don't think eleven days is too long to wait for the seed to sprout depending on the soil temps. I usually soak the seeds for a couple of days and plant them when the root starts to emerge so I don't have to worry about it too much.

[jal_ut]

Broccoli, no need to cover or tie the leaves.

Cauliflower, if you want it to be light colored, it is necessary to cover the head so it will blanch. If left in the full sun the head goes green. You can tie the leaves around it to accomplish this, but wait until the head gets quite large.

Squash, some are bush types. Crookneck and zucchini are examples. The other vining types can have very long vines, even up to 25 feet. I usually just give it some room and let it run. The vines will climb a trellis. You decide. I had a pumpkin one time climb a fence, then jump into a tree and go up the tree 20 feet.

Seeds germinating? Depends on soil moisture and temperature. Not unusual to take two weeks or even longer at times. Don't panic yet.

Tomatoes? I just let them sprawl like the squash. Again, suit yourself. Since I don't use cages, can't make any suggestions.

[imafan26]

Don't overwater the seeds. The soil should be moist, but if it stays too wet for too long the seeds will dampen off and rot.

It can sometimes take longer for seeds to germinate. The back of the package should tell you the range of when they should germinate.

Soaking works for hard to germinate seeds but squash is pretty easy to germinate as long as the soil is warm and soil is moist but not soggy.