Cucumbers inside to outside

[Adrastea]

Good afternoon all, I am having trouble with the cucurbits for 2 or 3 years now and I feel I must ask what I am doing wrong.

Last year my watermelons wilted, they did have aphids and I thought maybe they had succumbed to attack. I kept them in the greenhouse. They didn't recover from the wilting. I don't think I overwatered them, but do you know if they react badly to excess water?

This year I started some cucumbers off indoors and then moved them to a cold greenhouse at the end of May. I thought I had hardened them off enough, so I planted them outside early June. After a week, they all wilted! I even planted them on little ridges as is suggested, but they still wilted... and another of my watermelons wilted too. The watermelon was growing in the greenhouse. I now have one more watermelon that I am watching and have sown some more cucumbers which have just germinated.

Do you think I should grow the cucumbers in the greenhouse now or is there time to crop them outdoors? I live in Leeds where it is very cold most of the time. Please please tell me why cucurbits hate me

ps. I planted some courgettes out at the same time as the cucumbers, but they are ok and don't hate me....yet

[King Carrot]

By hardening off for 2 weeks did you move them outside the greenhouse on favorable days to get them used to being outside before planting them out?

Cus and melons really hate being in soggy soil and will go under - squashes and pumpkins seem to tolerate the soil being a bit damper – I tend to water my cus and melons first thing in the morning but only if the days going to be warm – ( I only grow cus inside because they don’t like the weather we get here!)

Try some in and some out next year - I would think keep the ones you've got inside and you'll get a crop this year!

[Scottishnewbie]

i've just planted 2 cukes into a straw bale as an experiment....and i'm in scotland!! will be interesting to see what happens

[Adrastea]

Thanks for the advice KC. I did harden them off in nice weather, but when I had planted them out, the weather turned a bit cool for a week so I covered them with fleece to try and protect them a bit, but maybe that's what did it. I also have a heavy soil which doesn't help I guess? For next year perhaps the straw idea mentioned may work?! Or maybe I should just be a bit more patient at planting them out

I potted my melon on and now I just water the outside of the pot and only when the compost is drying out, but I'll restrict it to sunny days as you say.

I'm so happy for the advice regarding these as I really didn't know what to do, thanks