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I've just completed my third growing season and first with a greenhouse, the toms (Shirley) were a triumph but the cucumbers had me baffled, firstly I accepted the plants as seedling from son in law and not all faired well so I'm not really sure what variety they were, the problem I was experiencing was this; the plants would develop small fruits about 4 or 5 at a time then suddenly 1 of the fruits would sprout away and the others would wither and die, this happened throughout the season. I would like to master the growing of these plants as the fruits I did get were delicous but I'd hate to go through this problem again. Can anyone give me guidance?
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This happened quite a lot with my cucumbers this year, and I'm not 100% sure why it happens. I'm thinking that it probably has something to do with more fruits being pollinated than the plant has the resources to grow properly, so it drops the extras. It could be any number of things that are lacking to make the plant do that - temperature, lack of water, lack of feed, too small a pot therefore not a big enough root system, or too big a pot meaning that the roots are too cold/damp... Or it could be that the mini fruitlets dropped off because they hadn't actually been pollinated.
It's a minefield isn't it?!
Cucumbers do generally prefer a more humid (warm & damp) atmosphere than tomatoes do, so I usually put mine in the middle of the greenhouse away from both the door and the window, so that might be worth a try? Other than that, I think I've probably created more questions than answers
Welcome to the 'Vine by the way, I'm a Mackem 'ex-pat' too
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I found that this can happen mainly due to the lack of pollination - so I hand pollinate a majority of my cukes and squashes - and next year if I grow melons will do the same. It's a bit fiddly when the flowers are so titchy but so worth it when you actually get good fruit.
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Thanks for the warm welcome and great advice, seems that the common thought could be non-pollination i'll definatley give that a go next season but I'll also keep a look out for the other aspects especially the rooting problem as it's only a couple of days ago that I cleared out the last cucumber pot from the greenhouse and found that that particular plant hadn't put down a good root system at all.Comment
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They are a bit tempremental over their roots - they like to go up a pot size at a time before being put into the final place/pot. Going from a 3 inch pot into final spacing will definitely cause sulking. I usually go to a 5" inch pot, and sometimes a 7" before planting out. I'm certain that roots weren't the problem with mine, but more likely a combination of erratic watering and temperature fluctuations - I broke my ankle and the other half was in charge of the greenhouse
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