Cucumbers!

[Lady of Shallots]

I'm sorry, I accidentally posted this thread in the wrong place the first time so I'm trying again in the vegetable bit! God, I'm such a newbie...


I have a young cucumber plant that is not thriving. It's about 10 inches tall, and has hardly grown since I got it a month or so ago. The leaves are yellowing and dry, although I'm watering it well.

I was given the plant by my mum who grew it from seed, but is also new to growing cucumbers and veg in general and can't remember whether the pack specified if it was indoor or outdoor variety and has lost the pack. Hers are doing very well indoors though, with little fruits and everything, while mine is all sad and stunted. I have it in a sunny window. I don't have a greenhouse unfortunately I've fed it plant food a few times since I got it, about once a week. Perhaps I've started feeding it too early? I have also seen aphids on it so sprayed it with soapy water. It started looking dodgy soon after so maybe it didn't like this?

I wonder if it's actually an outdoor variety that wants to be out in the fresh air, but as mum's are doing ok indoors I'm unsure! Is there any way to tell? Also so far there are no flowers or tiny fruit, and only bout 6 or seven leaves. Poor little thing. Can anyone help please? I was very excited about tuna and cucumber sarnies not so long ago

[mor]

not heard of using soapy water, is it getting so much sun , you said its in sunny location, have you check on the watering and fertilizer. too much watering causes the yellowing or wilt

[tigerella]

Hi,
I grow both indoor and outdoor cucs in my GH. I don't think that matters, just that an outdoor variety saves space in the GH. An indoor variety may well be less successful outdoors.

Your cuc will (hopefully) get a bit big for the windowsill, it can go outside in a growbag or pot against a nice sunny wall. You'll need to train it up netting or canes to stop the fruit laying on the ground.

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.

I don't feed my cucs fertilizer until the small fruits form. I feed twice weekly with tom food and seaweed. Liquid seaweed is a great tonic and will help pick your sick plant up.

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. I find it better to grow more than one plant to allow for possible losses.

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

Aphids shouldn't be too much of a prob, pick off any if you can. The soapy water may well have upset the plant.

Good luck and keep us posted

T

[saznpaul]

just wanted to say thanks for posting that advice tigerella it was really informative for this beginner here. i.e. me!!! lol

i have no idea whether my cuc's are in or outdoor. however we have them in our little growhouse as the moment. We started them from seed 3 weeks ago and (as far as we can tell) they seem to be coming on ok & are a good size.

we planted ours in pots in comp but did add some of the westland organic food in the mix too.

i hope you can revive your little cucumber plant. I've been amazed at how excited we've got by seeimg them come on from seed.

good luck & keep us posted on progress.

[tigerella]

Your welcome

Everything I posted comes from learning from my own mistakes and the repeated advice we have to give our customers this time of year

Forgot to say, when I pot up I do mix in a bit of organic fertilizder granules and a dusting of superphosphate in the soil to help it along. I didn't have any of my own rotted compost ready.
This autumn I'm gonna hold some rotted compost back for the GH next year.

[Lady of Shallots]

Thank you so much for the advice mor and tigerella! Perhaps there is still hope for this little plant then!
I will reduce the amount of watering then, and my mini greenhouse should be going up this weekend so I will see how it does in there, should be nice and humid for it then but I'll put it on the bottom so it doesn't get too much sun. Think I'll try a little liquid seaweed too, not heard of that before!

Starting to think the yellowy leaves may have been caused by the soapy water combined with sun scorching the leaves (mum has since told me to only do this in the evening when sun not out!) oops! I think I have definitely been overwatering too poor little thing! I think when I started out I had no idea how sensitive plants were, but I'm learning so much, and it makes it all the more enjoyable, giving them lots of gentle TLC! Tigerella you have given me hope anyway, lovely to hear about staff at your garden centre caring so much for the little poorly plants thanks again!

[Lady of Shallots]

This is the unfortunate plant...

[tigerella]

Lady,
I think your cuc will be ok. The older leaves are manky but the new growth looks good. That's the main thing. The stem is nice and chunky too.
Good luck and you'll soon be eating cucs!!
I get the liquid seaweed (Vitax organic seaweed) from wilkos.


It really is amazing how attatched you can get to a plant, something you've nurtured so much. I just finished work and have come back with a bag full of little rooted shoots of various perennials that broke off when I was weeding them out. I just couldn't bear to throw them away...I have to shut my eyes when I go by the area where dying plants get dumped

[chongfl]

This is such a good lesson to learn, thank you so much for posting this subject

[Lady of Shallots]

I just had to say, although still looking very poorly, perhaps even more than before, my cucumber plant has one flower! I think it's a male flower as growing straight from the main stem with no baby cucumber behind it do I pick this off or leave it on? I have it outside today as it's nice out, but it's been in my mini greenhouse for a week or so. I haven't managed to get liquid seaweed yet but I'll get some next week and see how it does with a little bit of that. It doesn't really seem any better yet, but at the same time, it's still alive so hasn't given up yet!

[Susie]

I'm no expert believe me!!! - BUT - i am sure i've read somewhere that male flowers should be removed??? Don't take my word for it because I am a newbie and may be giving poor advice but hopefully someone will be along soon to give you the correct advice??? In the meantime - if it were me - i'd have a look on the internet and see if I could find out about the male flowers??? Good luck!! - let me know how your plant get on!!

[tigerella]

The cuc doesn't look too bad. Just give her time and make sure she's not over wet but doesn't dry out. Give a nice liquid feed now, too.

It's wise to remove male flowers as they make the fruit taste bitter. Some varieties have the male flowers bred out of them to stop this problem.

[Lady of Shallots]

Thanks! I've got her outside now though, I couldn't remember if it was indoor or outdoor cucs you're meant to remove the male flowers from?! I'd better look it up...

[Lady of Shallots]

Just thought I'd update all those who gave me such good advice - it has certainly worked! Have attached a pic of the same plant, doing ever so well now! She's got little baby cucumbers and everything! That liquid seaweed is awesome, I've been giving it to any of my plants that look sickly and just as a bit of a boost and they're all doing splendidly!

Thanks again everyone