Sickly curcurbit seedlings

[wormlady]

Hello first time poster here
Ive been happily growing various veg (with varying success rates!) for the last 2 seasons on my allotment. This year Ive started two lots of cucumber, pumpkin and courgette seeds off in pots and both sets have died. Anyone know what Im doing wrong?

The seeds were from Wilkos (ok perhaps not the best but so are all my other seeds and they've been fine) and I planted them sideways in pots of seedling compost.

They came up ok and looked fine for a week then started to shrivel up along the edges of the leaves and then keeled over. I only watered from below and after the first lot died I was super careful not to over water as I thought the first batch had maybe been "damped off". They were on a south facing windowsill but its been pretty cloudy here in Leeds the last few weeks. Did they just not get enough sun?

My other seedlings have all been fine (sweetcorn, toms, peas etc).
Help!

[squash63]

Hello first time poster here
Ive been happily growing various veg (with varying success rates!) for the last 2 seasons on my allotment. This year Ive started two lots of cucumber, pumpkin and courgette seeds off in pots and both sets have died. Anyone know what Im doing wrong?

The seeds were from Wilkos (ok perhaps not the best but so are all my other seeds and they've been fine) and I planted them sideways in pots of seedling compost.

They came up ok and looked fine for a week then started to shrivel up along the edges of the leaves and then keeled over. I only watered from below and after the first lot died I was super careful not to over water as I thought the first batch had maybe been "damped off". They were on a south facing windowsill but its been pretty cloudy here in Leeds the last few weeks. Did they just not get enough sun?

My other seedlings have all been fine (sweetcorn, toms, peas etc).
Help!

Hello and welcome from a fairly new member too.
You seem to be doing everything right in the way you sow them, and in not over-watering. The only thing I can think of is that they were too cold. I've sown between 6 to 12 seeds each of 26 varieties of squash, courgette and pumpkin this month and most have germinated and grown well. One or two remained 'stunted' though, even though the other seeds grew well in exactly the same conditions. They haven't died, but they are not growing either. It's a mystery! Maybe someone else can offer advice to both of us.

[Alice]

Welcome to the Vine Wormlady. It's hard to say what happened to your plants but it doesn't sound like damping off. If they were on a south facing windowsill did they fry - even for a short time. Sounds like it. ON the other hand I had 2 cucumbers which did the samre thing. I couldn't see a thing wrong with them except they were all dry and shrivelled up. All the other plants were fine. It's a shame but you have plenty of time to replant. Good luck.

[nick the grief]

Hi Wormlady, welcome to the vine.

Couple of things spring to mind but enough about them and on with the curcubits

1) it gets quite cold at night in windows especially if you draw the curtains and you trap the cold air around the plants - not good
2)You say south facing & I'd guess they were getting burnt to a crisp in the sun & heat during the day .

Seedlings need it bright but not direct sunlight and they want it uniformly heated ( ie warm). A better bet would be to put them on an east or wet facing cill, take them out of the window at night or better still get an electric propagator so they have some warmth around them at night.

Hope this helps

[wormlady]

Hi folks and thanks for the replies.
Im fairly sure they didnt get too hot - its really been pretty miserable weather here for the last few weeks but they might have gotten too cold at night I suppose. I guess I'll try again and maybe third time lucky I'll get some healthy seedlings!

[JennieAtkinson]

Welcome to the Grapevine Wormlady!

I too have had problems with cucumbers and courgettes this year and to a certain extent squash, although it is really my first real year growing them.

My cucumbers and courgettes have geminated well, but it is the stem that has dried up, kinked and then the plant keels over. The root is particularly healthy and the leaves look ok. Never had those problems before. I wondered whether I had a draft in the greenhouse somewhere, although tomatoes and other flowers growing alongside have been fine.

The squash are still just sitting with 4/6 leaves, just not doing anything.

Nice to know that you are not alone though!

[Alice]

I think we'll blame the weather Jennie. Squash would like it a good few degrees warmer than we've been getting and a bit of sunshine to go with it. I don't see any dramatic rise in temperature on the way ! We're only doing about 12 degrees. Not very good for May.

[JennieAtkinson]

We got 12 degrees today, but yesterday the wind was so strong that everytime I looked out of the window a tulip head blasted past! My garden is somewhat decimated at the moment.

I think the greenhouse has not been as warm as I had hoped, but I have to keep reminding myself it is not june yet!