Cucumbers worry

[2e1fmo]

Hi all

My cumcumbers (marketmore) seem to be struggling to grow (the plant that is, not the fruit). Im wondering if i left them for too long in 3" indoor pots when they were young, because they started to flower in those pots. I immediately repotted in larger pots and started getting them used to outdoor temperatures, finally moving them into growbags a few weeks ago.

They dont seem to be dieing, but are all just staying around 12inch in height, still flowering and some have started growing into fruit. The lower leaves have curled a bit and started turning yellow, but above this the plants seem healthly enough and the growing tip looks like its ready to keep going, but its just so slow in doing anything.

Should I remove any flowers and fruit growing, in hope that it might then put its energy into promoting new plant growth?

Any help or advise much appreciated.
Thanks, Dan

[2e1fmo]

Hi, does anybody have any advise they could give me please?

[bramble]

Hi there, I am growing cucs in my greenhouse and they are doing exaxtly the same as yours.ood top growth with the bottom leaves yellowing and plenty of flowers starting to develop into small cucs.
I would definitely not remove the flowers, after all you are trying to grow cucs,and if they are growing well what does it matter about the size of the plant at the moment.
It will grow bigger in its own time.
Are you feeding it well?
Sorry I can't be more helpful.

[zazen999]

Usually, when a plant is not seemingly growing after repotting or moving, it is putting its energy into the roots.


Give them a seaweed feed in the meantime as a boost. Don't forget to feed them with tomato feed once the fruits are out [once a week to the correct dilution].

[rdmstff]

cucumber disaster

I have 3 cucumber plants in my greenhouse, they were all doing well as far as a novice could tell, 2 have been grown from seed, they have small fruits one is very poorly shrivelling leaves, has fruit on it. Door is kept shut but there is an automatic window watered and fed regularily.

hope the picture will work. Any advice much appreciated

[irisgirl]

Cucumbers are very tempremental. They like a humid environment with not too much water until the fruits form. A water spray spritzed over them is good.A big killer of cucs is to over water, especially watering the plant/stem and watering in the evening.
Avoid too much sunlight as the leaves can scorch.
When you come to plant it out, they can wilt and be rather sulky for a while but usually pick up.

The nursery I work at recommends cutting the bottom of the pot the cuc is growing in and planting it into a growbag/pot with half the pot above soil level. This helps keep water away from the plant as you water around the pot and minimises root upset.

Just treat the plant gently and hopefully it will be ok. There's still time for it to catch up as we are still selling the plants at first leaf stage.
If the lower leaves look no good, take them off. They are the older leaves.
Leave the flowers.

At work today, there were a lot of cuc plants that had sadly wilted and were beyond saving, I found a sorry looking plant among them that I brought hom to revive. It's all wilty and unhappy but there's hope. We were sellotaping the broken stalks of some plants that the staff then took home to nurture, so there's always hope!

[2e1fmo]

Thanks for all your helpful suggestions.

I think i may have discovered something though; i have some cumcumbers in pots of general multi pupose compost and some in peat free growbags. It seems that the ones not growing so well are in the peat free growbags (although the growbags say on them they can be used for cucumbers).

[bigdog]

Thanks for your very informative post, irisgirl.
I have planted my cucs (miniature white) in pots sunk into a growbag as you describe. Initially they were very slow to move but are doing well now. Rather than water the pots, I have 2 upside-down plastic bottles (with the bottoms cut off) screwed into the growbag and I simply water the growbag. My intention is to feed via the pots when the fruit set.
I have a slight concern that the plants won't take up enough moisture if I don't water the pots, but so far they are doing very well.
The growing instructions I received with my seeds instructs me to leave both male and female flowers on the plant but I'm sure I read somewhere that this can lead to bitter fruits. Any advice?

[Incy]

The growing instructions I received with my seeds instructs me to leave both male and female flowers on the plant but I'm sure I read somewhere that this can lead to bitter fruits. Any advice?

This depends apparently on the variety. Most outdoor cucumbers seem to be fine without removing the flowers. I haven't removed any flowers from my marketmore and just ate my 1st homegrown cucumber yesterday...yum!