Cucumber germination

[sewer rat]

Rat, can I ask as an inexperienced grower of cucs. Do you remove the lower leaves when the fruit starts developing as your picture doesn't seem to show many lower leaves?

Yes but it's for this reason and this reason alone - my cukes are watered and fed via the 3" pots that you see buried beside each cane, and the leaves just get in the way -that is the only reason -nothing to do with ripening or maturing the fruits, though I am aware that this might be considered a benefit - I do know there are some growers who swear by removing the lower leaves.

[selfraising]

Oh I see, thanks very much for the quick reply!

[cupcake]

Makes my 6 off one plant look a bit sick! They look wonderful!

[Alison]

I don't worry how long mine take to germinate (although they were only about 2 or 3 days this year in a heated propogator) but if the resultant seedlings are particularly slow to take off then they're more likely to be culled if I have too many. Survival of the fitest and all that.

[Lazgaot]

Yes but it's for this reason and this reason alone - my cukes are watered and fed via the 3" pots that you see buried beside each cane, and the leaves just get in the way -that is the only reason -nothing to do with ripening or maturing the fruits, though I am aware that this might be considered a benefit - I do know there are some growers who swear by removing the lower leaves.

I thought the lower leaves were removed to improve air circulation and to enable you to drop the stem down as the plant kept growing, so you can keep cropping. I've seen this done in a commercial tomato greenhouse. The top of the tomato plants were about 10-12ft high and at the base of the plant was what looked like a coil of ship anchor rope in a nice neat coil. It was infact the main stem of the tom plant! Very impressive.

[Two_Sheds]

"Germination takes place in 2-3 days-do not use seedlings which germinate after this time."

I've been pondering this.
When people say something has germinated, they normally mean that it's poked it's head out of the soil. when in fact, germination has probably been much quicker, only you can't see the seed because it's buried.
If you sow on damp kitchen paper, you will see how quick germination can be ... only a day or two in some cases.

[Anemone]

Hi. I sowed 2 types of cucumber on 4th April. Marketmore were up in a few days and are doing fine. The Crystal Lemon are doing nothing - I've even had a little dig down to the seed in one of the pots and the seed is still intact. They're in fibre pots inside an enclosed heated propagator and the seed was saved from a cucumber my aunt grew last summer. Any advice ? My aunt will be very disappointed if I don't get at least one plant from these.

[coreopsis]

Hi. I sowed 2 types of cucumber on 4th April. Marketmore were up in a few days and are doing fine. The Crystal Lemon are doing nothing - I've even had a little dig down to the seed in one of the pots and the seed is still intact. They're in fibre pots inside an enclosed heated propagator and the seed was saved from a cucumber my aunt grew last summer. Any advice ? My aunt will be very disappointed if I don't get at least one plant from these.

You can always grow another cuke and say to your auntie "that's your one"

[coreopsis]

BTW,germination 2-3 days?I'm afraid my cukes are very lazy this year.If I took this man advice I would end up with nothing...

[Anemone]

You can always grow another cuke and say to your auntie "that's your one"

But Lemon Crystal are quite distinctive (small, yellow, spherical) so it will need to be that variety. I'd better order some seeds then. Thanks.

[MrsC]

I've been pondering this.
When people say something has germinated, they normally mean that it's poked it's head out of the soil. when in fact, germination has probably been much quicker, only you can't see the seed because it's buried.
If you sow on damp kitchen paper, you will see how quick germination can be ... only a day or two in some cases.

TS you're quite right

[SarzWix]

Well, after reading this I took notice of how long my cucs took to pop out of the soil. I sowed Tiffany & Sigmadew cucumbers, Waltham butternuts and Pumpkin Jack of all Trades. All into 3 inch pots, well watered, into heated propagator. Within 48 hours all of them were starting to pop out, and one of the Tiffany was up in 36 hours. So if the conditions are right, it's more than possible to get that sort of germination speed.

[MrsC]

After what SarzWix posted then got to agree with original post, because if ideal temperatures are maintained as Sarzwix said then they should germinate within the time specified. Well that's how I understand it anyway