cucurbit pursuits

I'm getting acquainted with the farming community in eastern Massachusetts (& everywhere) as part of this apprenticeship, including some GREAT nerdy farmer websites:
UMass Vegetable Program
Rodale Institute

There's so much to keep track of with the different crops at their various stages. A month ago I would have laughed at an article in the UMass VegNotes email about cucurbit disease management, but since we planted our first cucurbits yesterday, I'm pretty interested in seeing them grow and have a much deeper appreciation for the pain of losing crops that you've put a lot of time & work into. (Cucurbits are plants in the gourd family, that include cucumbers, zucchini, squash, melons, etc.)

For example, here's what we did Wednesday with our cucurbits - in this case, a variety of zucchini:
1. Sprayed the transplants with kaolin powder, a clay & water mixture that covers the plant and turns it white. This FOOLS the cuke beetles into thinking the plant is not their food source, and they leave it alone. Hopefully.
2. Dibbled the bed with the tractor, in a straight row down the center. Usually we do 3 rows, but the zucchini gets planted in just 1 row per bed. "Dibble" is a hole; there's a roller on the back of the tractor that makes even holes in even rows.
3. Buried the transplants in the dibbles, up to but not past the growing tip of the plant.
4. Sprayed k. powder again - this time with a Ghostbusters-style spray backpack.
5. Laid out the irrigation tape (wimpy plastic) down the length of the bed, for later.
6. Spread mulch around EVERY plant, down the whole bed. We used straw. Were debating the differences between hay & straw - same plant, different drying process? Has hay gone to seed & straw hasn't? Need to look this up.
7. Put wire hoops about every 2 feet or so down the length of the bed, over the plants.
8. Rolled out the row cover, covered the plant over the wire hoops, buried the edge with dirt. This entails walking down the bed with a shovel, and putting a shovelful of dirt on the edge of the row cover, keeping it straight, until it's all buried. Is an odious task until you get the hang of it, and then it's not too bad. This keeps the plants warm, and the bugs out. Hopefully.

So when the VegNotes email is about protecting the cucurbits, I'm really, really, interested. These plants won't be ready for a while, either - not like our lettuces that take 30 days & pop out of the ground by themselves, practically. Lots to keep learning...