I didn’t believe it until I tried it myself. Don’t water cucumber seeds when you plant them. Only give them water after they emerge. They will! And they will be less likely to develop powder mildew.

This is from Steve Solomon’s book “growing organic vegetables west of the Cascades.” Amend the soil with fertilizer, then mound up a low hill 18” wide and 3 feet from other plants. Push your fist 1.5” down into the center of the hill this restores capillarity, which he talks about often and I’ve been restoring capillarity for all my seedlings this year and it’s an amazing trick. Water can pull itself up from deep underground using …. Shoot. What’s that word? Where water climbs up a tree? But when you till or fluff the soil before planting you break it up so that there is too much air between soil particles. The water can’t climb up. Think of a time you saw a deep footprint in a muddy ground. Not only did the footprint hold water better than surrounding soil, but even after it dried, at night the footprint could become wet again. This is from the capillarity of the soil. It’s compressed enough that water can travel in it.

Before I plant any seedling now I press on the soil, like with the edge of a board. Place seeds in the hole, or valley, then sprinkle soil on top. And water them too. But only with the cucurbits don’t water them until they emerge. And they will!