Veggie Seed Starts

I normally start my stuff in peat pots, last year I tired sponges and  water which worked, but back to peat pods as they are just as fast, if not faster,  all but  the eggplant I started last weekend  are germinated.  With the peat pods you have a good week or more after germination before you need to do anything.  I normally move my stuff to pots and then outside went they are 4-6 weeks old.  I am just outside Philadelphia PA and don't really put things out until the middle of May any more.  Starting early just leaves the plants sitting there with cold feet until the soil get up to temperature in mid may.    Being in Canada, are you not a little early? 

If I were you, I would pot them up now before the roots get too much longer.  This way the roots can grow into the soil rather than being a huge clump that can not function in the soil, requiring the plant to grow more roots before it can grow top growth.  If your greenhouse is not warm enough yet, maybe pick up some grow lights and just keep them inside until the weather warms up .. I am going to have an office full of pots this year as I am trying a couple extra tomato plants and will be using larger custom pots that will allow for larger root system.. 4" too small for 6 weeks and 7" too big.. hoping 5x6 is Goldie Locks 

I have transplanted hydroponically grown items after they have outgrown the hydroponic environment and none have died, in fact I had to  remove almost all the roots from some parsley last year to get it out of the deck.  I cut the plastic cage in halve so only a stub left, and it survived!   Even got transplanted again before the winter to feed some Swallow Tail Caterpillar  

Good luck!!

Like Sher, I agree with airscapes that you should transplant the cucumbers now. You don't have much to lose, however you choose to do it, because they sprouted so quickly. You can easily start another batch if these should fail.

In removing plants from a seed starter, Aerogrow deck, or Kratky, I just pull the plant straight up out of the holder or hole (keeping the sponge and plastic pod holder). If there is resistance, I look underneath for entangled roots, and just chop these apart. Sometimes I have to trim the sides of the roots to clear the grow deck hole.

When I pull the plants out, the main roots come along. I used to worry about leaving no-longer-connected root fragments in the grow bowl, but that has never caused a decay problem.

The plants that come out of the grow deck with even a few decent roots almost always survive the transplanting process. I do keep the plants that are transplanted into soil very wet for several days.

The transplants look marvelous!

Parsley is hard to kill, believe me!  

So far so good! I was later than I wanted getting everything out of the machine since my household got hammered with COVID, but I finally was able to transplant them about a week ago. I also needed to pot my strawberry roots from Veseys (it’s still been near 0c at night here) so we’re doing greenhouse during the day and dining room table (with grow lights in the fixture 😂) at night or when it’s chilly in the mornings.