The rain did wonders for mine too.. Actually got a few new fruits showing up on the maters. Had uproot a squash plant today though, as it had got wiped out by friggin rollie polleys. bastages didn't like the 1/2 gallon of sevin I just sprayed on them though.

Sorry, I can't help with any ideas on what could have gone wrong. This was my first time to mess with cukes but they have grown like crazy and produced a lot so far considering I only have them planted in those big black tree buckets/tubs with about 5 plants per bucket. I built a little trellace(sp) for them to climb on and they are now about 5 ft tall and spread out. My jalapenos have been a disappointment this year though. They are making fine, but they have no heat to them at all. You can eat them like bell peppers, lol. Not even hot enough to make hot sauce. My bell peppers have done very good too, green, red, yellow and purple (first time I had seen that variety so I was a little surprised when they showed up).

No idea what I did wrong on the cucumbers. I didn't get any. Lots of vines and flowers, and I went and gave the flowers a little "shake" every few days, but only 3 cucs or so, and they shriveled up and died. One had pillbugs in it. Stupid pillbugs...

Will be canning my 10th quart of pickles tonight. Almost starting to look like my Grandmas ole pantry (not really, she had a 6x10 ft pantry with shelves and stocked to the ceiling with all varieties of stuff). By the looks of things, there will be another quarts worth of cukes ready by Thur or Fri. It's been fun!

Go to Wal-Mart and look for the "Ball Blue Book of Preserving" or :
Try Here .

I can peppers by washing them, packing them in hot jars with garlic/onion/sage/whatever then covering them with boiling vinegar. Screw the (hot) lids and caps on and let 'em cool overnight. After they've cooled down, press on the lids to make sure they're air-tight. If the lid doesn't pop back up they're sealed. If it does, put 'em in the refrigerator ASAP.

This is my Grandmas recipe and it's what I use as well. For canning pickles, I use 10% vinegar (hard to find in the DFW area so my Mom bought me a gallon where she lives). I guess you can use 5% but change the ratio of water to vinegar to 2 qts water and 2 qts 5% vinegar. Anyway, it calls for 3 qts water, 1 qt 10% vinegar and 1 cup pickling salt. Put in a big pot to boil until the salt is dissolved. Pick your cukes, wash really good to get any little "spines" off. Get qt jar (sterilize if it's been used before). Put a head of dill in the bottom (dill weed/seed works okay too but be sure to put plenty), 1 garlic clove and a few peppercorns (I use 5 or 6). You can adjust the amount of garlic or pepper to see what you like best. Now stuff the cukes into the jar as tightly as possible till full, just below the neck of the jar. Spoon in 1 teaspoon of sugar (you can put 2 if you like them a tad sweeter) but you need to add some as it aids in making the pickles crunchy. Now fill the jar to the bottom of the neck with the water/vinegar solution. Put the lid on loosely. Have a bigger pot with boiling water ready to go and place the jar into that pot making sure it's at least halfway up the jar. Allow this to sit in the boil, water boiling for approx 15 minutes. You will see the cukes begin to change color and little air bubbles rise to the top. After 15 minutes, use a good towel or pot holder and remove the jar to the counter top. Tighten the lid down as tight as you can, I use those rubber lid removers because they aid in getting a grip on it plus the lids are usually hot by now. The lid will have a little "nipple" in the center, sticking up slightly. Usually the jar will seal and "burp" within 30 minutes but sometimes longer. You can always tell if it sealed properly because the little nipple I mentioned will be gone and the lid will be slightly sunken in. Let this sit on the shelf for about 30 days to get the flavors all happy. Then enjoy.

Once you gallon of the water/vinegar/salt mixture cools, I put it into a big gallon jug and refrigerate so that next time I have a mess of cukes ready for pickling, my mixture is ready to go. No need to boil it again before filling the jar. Just pour it on top of a jar full of cukes and complete 15 minute boiling process. This really speeds up the process on the next go around, especially if you're getting home from work and need to make a quick quart or 2.

I think my beds have too much nitrogen. Tomatoes and squash are huge and leafy but hardly bearing any flowers. I use lots of compost which I think is too high in nitrogen, not enough carbon.
Anyone have suggestions for a remedy?

Thanx, I'll pick up some 0-10-6 or similar.

I don't use a rack but I guess it would be fine. This is sort of old school canning I guess and Granny didn't have the best of the best on the farm so they made do with what they had. But I also put the jars in before the water starts boiling so they can come up to temp a little if I use the vinegar mixture right out of the fridge (cold). If you want to heat the mixture up before putting it in the jars, then you are basically heating the jar up (tempering) so it wouldn't matter. Maybe I've just been lucky though but I did finish my 10th qt on Tuesday and none have caused any problems. If you want to spend a liBut I also put the jars in before the water starts boiling so they can come up to temp a little ttle extra money, I beleive they actually make a little canning "system" that has a rack, pot and even some fancy tongs to put the jars in and remove them. Since my garden is small and I'm only canning 1 or 2 jars at a time, I didn't see the need for it. If you have a bigger garden and end up canning a lot at one time, I would invest in it since you can boil multiple qts at once.