Cucumber Advice

[donksey]

I wondered if you could give me some advice.
I am growing some 'Boothby Blond' little cucumbers, which were from seed. They have grown reasonably well and they produce lots of flowers and the beginnings of cucumbers but very few have elected themselves to develope to full cucumbers.
They are growing in pots in a cheap blow away upright propagator, with front open always.They are fed with tomatoe feed twice a week.
Any ideas why I had only 4 cucumbers so far from 4 plants?

[Scarlet]

A photo would help if you could upload one? How big are your pots, the roots may be restricted?

[donksey]

I was wondering about that. I should be able to measure the pots and post some pictures tomorrow.

[Scarlet]

If the pots are drying out quickly the flowers often drop off. You really need them in big flower buckets (the size they sell flowers in at the super market) or builders buckets. They are thirsty plants.
Post a pic though, it will help

[Zelenina]

Are there many pollinators about? Because it could be lack of pollination. Try hand pollination with a fine paint brush or cotton bud. You need to pick up some pollen from a male flower, one without a tiny cucumber at its base, and gently rub it on the middle of a female flower that has a tiny cucumber attached to it. Or you could pick the male flower and rub it directly on the female one.

[donksey]

That must be the problem, my pots are 1/4 the size of those buckets.
I water twice a day but still the roots must need more nutrients.

[donksey]

Are there many pollinators about? Because it could be lack of pollination. Try hand pollination with a fine paint brush or cotton bud. You need to pick up some pollen from a male flower, one without a tiny cucumber at its base, and gently rub it on the middle of a female flower that has a tiny cucumber attached to it. Or you could pick the male flower and rub it directly on the female one.

I'll give that a try, many thanks.

[Bill HH]

The thing is, if its the pot size at fault, what can you do about it now? You cant really repot a growing cucumber plant without risking breaking it. I think I might cut the pots off and dump a whole bag of MPC on them maybe surrounde with some boards.

[Jungle Jane]

they produce lots of flowers and the beginnings of cucumbers but very few have elected themselves to develope to full cucumbers.

This is normal isn't it? One of my cucumber plants will throw out 7 or 8 tiny cucumbers (1cm long) some lower down the stem go brown,they don't all grow,I'l get one growing well & a second cucumber trying to have the power,when the first ones harvested,that second one gets some power to finish growing. So to speed the process up,I pinch out a few of the tiny cucumbers,then the plant has less cucumbers,so can hurry up with the couple it's got. I've also got some outside mini diva cucumbers planted in my raised bed,plenty of space,but I'm only taking one cucumber at a time. (When the cucumbers stopped growing,harvest it straight away otherwise the plant just seems to stop doing anything). I grow carman,bella,picolino,telegraph & diva varieties.