Pathetic Cucumbers

[Marb67]

Well, here I go again with yet more pathetic growing. This time a seemingly healthy cucumber plant is yielding pathetic, tiny yellowing fruits that eventually wither. The plant is well fed with liquid nettle feed/comfrey as well as being kept well watered. Same is happening with my courgettes.

[Penellype]

My cucumbers started producing fruit before the hot spell, and this is now ready to eat, but I have noticed that there are not many following on, with some of the fruits going yellow as you describe. This is particularly true of the ones in the greenhouse. I think the hot weather may be to blame.

The courgettes sound more like lack of pollination.

[ameno]

I would be almost certain that the cause is that tiny pot. You need a pot at least three times that size, maybe four times. Cucumbers grow to be big plants and require a lot of water, especially in the hot weather we have been having.
My cucumbers are in pots about four or five times that size, and even they start aborting fruits when they are water stressed due to being too hot.
With a pot that size, you cannot compensate just by watering more often. A pot that size simply does not allow the plant's roots to spread far enough, and it cannot form enough roots to supply the top growth with enough water in hot weather, even if the compost is saturated.

[quanglewangle]

Just by way of comparison to a small pot:

We grow a single cucumber Baby F1 plant in the greenhouse bed and have been getting a decent size (not actually baby) fruit every two or three days.

When come to dig the bed out at the end the the season the root system, based on previous years, will be quite extensive, maybe 800mm x 400mm x 100mm deep.

We encourage this by watering out away from the plant early in the year so the roots grow out to find the water.

Is watered twice a day, and seems to need it.

[Marb67]

Well I don't have any more room to accommodate a bigger pot, or the compost so it will have to go in the ground. No idea how I will get it out the pot without making a hash of the roots etc.

[Mark Rand]

Don't worry about the roots during the transplant. be very worried about the stem. It'll break with the slightest provocation. DAMHIKT!

[ameno]

Yeah, cucumber roots grow back pretty well, so don't worry too much about damaging those.
The young stems are very brittle, however the older ones, one which are starting to go pale brown, are usually actually fairly tough.

[Jungle Jane]

I wish I could see the photo close up,still having problems there,you see I use a smallish pot with my indoor cucumbers,as long as they get water everyday & also fertiliser more often than what you’d normally use to forgive the small pot,they should be fine. I wouldn’t want to try potting it on,maybe sink the pot into the ground instead,roots will grow through helping a bit.

[ameno]

I wish I could see the photo close up,still having problems there,you see I use a smallish pot with my indoor cucumbers,as long as they get water everyday & also fertiliser more often than what you’d normally use to forgive the small pot,they should be fine. I wouldn’t want to try potting it on,maybe sink the pot into the ground instead,roots will grow through helping a bit.

By the looks of the picture, it's a 4 or 5 litre terracotta pot (terracotta doesn't help; it wicks the water away), and the plant is about 4-5 feet tall with no significant side shoots.

Sinking the pot into the ground does sound like it could be a better idea, though. If it were me, I would carefully snip off all of the tendrils holding the plant to the trellis, then carry it to a pre-dug hole a few inches deeper than the pot, sink it into the hole, and cover with soil.

[Marb67]

Ok, but the pot only has a small hole at the bottom.

[ameno]

Ok, but the pot only has a small hole at the bottom.

Roots should still grow out of the hole in the bottom, plus just having the pot buried will help reduce water loss from the pot.
Planting it out properly would be better, of course, but that's assuming you can do it without damaging the plant.

[Plot70]

If you are prepared to loose the pot you could stand it in the planting hole and give the pot a tap with a hammer and remove it in bits.
Then fill the hole with real soil.

[Marb67]

Planted the pot in soil and weeks on, lots of flowers, tiny cucumbers that never grow. I just give up. All my other squashes pathetic too.

[ameno]

It was probably too little, too late. Cucurbits (cucumbers, squash, courgettes, etc,) in general resent too much root disturbance and need lots of water, so it probably just never recovered from being in that tiny pot.
Just plant it in a big pot or in the ground from the start next year and you should be fine.