Mini cucumbers not developing

[sweetcorn]

I have some reallly healthy looking mini cucumbers, sweet crunch. There are loads and loads of little baby cucumbers about 3 cm long, looking pretty healthy but just sitting there doing nothing!!! Do I need to thin them out, or thin out some of the stems?? I have fed them tomato feed, and they are looking v. healthy apart from that .....

[ddiogyn]

Same here. I have several dozen baby cucumbers on each plant. I thinned one of my plants out to one fruit per leaf last week. One plant is also being fed with high nitrogen feed, while the other two are fed with Tomorite. All are the same in terms of size/number of baby cucumbers.

[Tomatoking]

Same here. I have several dozen baby cucumbers on each plant. I thinned one of my plants out to one fruit per leaf last week. One plant is also being fed with high nitrogen feed, while the other two are fed with Tomorite. All are the same in terms of size/number of baby cucumbers.

Tomorite is better for cucumbers, more potash.
Thining out of cues on the stem will help, they should start swelling very soon if you do, you will get loads later.
Save some shoots to grow them on though as a back up.
Always works for me, despite what people say about only growing them on the stem.

[ddiogyn]

@TK

I wasn't sure, since lots of people advocate tomato feed, but i read an article on growing 'prize cucumbers' that suggested high nitrogen was best. So i'm trialling both this year.

Update on the progress of my cucumbers: some cucumbers seem to be swelling and losing their furriness now, although these are in the middle of the plant rather than at the bottom (where the first cucumbers appeared). In fact several cucumbers seem to be aborting their fruit, perhaps i've left too many on?

[Tomatoking]

Cucumbers will sort themselves out if overloaded, that is why the small ones turn yellow, so just cut them off.
If you want a really long cucumber hang a jar of water just below it, as soon as the tip gets to the water lower the jar. A bit of a pain but it really works.

I still think cucumbers need the potash in tomato feed once the plant is loaded with fruit. But no harm in seeing which works best.

[ddiogyn]

If you want a really long cucumber hang a jar of water just below it, as soon as the tip gets to the water lower the jar.

Interesting... What's the reasoning behind this - does the cucumber 'sniff out' the water? Do you think a daily mist would do the same thing, or is it important the cucumber 'senses' the water, but not actually make contact with it?

[Tomatoking]

I think the jar is the only way, but it has to be a few mm from the end of the cucumber.
I was taught it at the age of about 15 when I started working in greenhouses, the old boys always used to do it for fun to see who could grow the longest cucumber.
We grew tomatoes commercially where we worked, but the end of the greenhouse was always used for our own cucumbers and melons.