Cucumber help?

[Elle's Garden]

My cucumbers - mini variety - have started to wilt. Now I have been away 2 weeks, but left strict instructions about watering and bringing indoors.

As I have only a small unheated greenhouse I have been carting stuff in and out at night so they don't get cold and before I went away the cucumbers looked great. Now I am back some of the leaves look a little scorched so I have put up shading in the green house (a single layer of fleece) the plants are about 6 inches high and seemed ok otherwise. Just been out to close up the green house before bringing them in later, and 2 of the 5 plants are drooping badly and one of those has even tried to put out mini cucumbers and flowers. Having read the thread about courgettes - or was it the article in the KG mag I wonder if this is because they plants feel under stress? I have never tried to grow them before so have no experience to draw on. There are no roots stickiing out of the pot and they are in 6 inch pots at the moment. To my best knowledge they have not been too wet or too dry, but of course I don't really know.

Any ideas? Are they doomed?

[alan refail]

They certainly sound stressed and/or too dry or too wet.

But don't worry - it's not too late to resow. With a little warmth they will be up in less than a week

[oldherbaceous]

Dear Elle, i don't suppose this will make you feel a lot better but, my early sown mini cucumbers plants have done the same over the last two days.
To make it more annoying, i'm sure it's through over watering. I had them sitting in a tray behind some other plants and neglected to notice the tray had water staying in it, So probably root rot is the cause for me.

[Elle's Garden]

Dear OH, that does make me feel better, because I did pop some water into their tray yesterday, and whilst it was all sucked up, the base seemed moist this pm when I picked it up. Is it too late then? Will they not recover when they dry at all? Looks like it was my mistake rather than the sitter's - so that is probably a good thing! Oh, well, off to the garden centre again at the weekend !!

[oldherbaceous]

Dear Elle, if they have only partially collapsed they might make new roots, and get growing again, but i don't think they will ever make decent plants.
I have some more plants coming along, but i am very annoyed with myself.

[poppingjay]

I have three 'exploding cucumber' plants that I've raised from seed, in fact they germinated quicker than the normal cues. Today they're looking very sorry for themselves and I can't fathom what might be wrong with them? Looks like I'll have to resow now which is a shame because they were doing so well

AND my gooseberries have contracted some form of fluffy white mould

[Elle's Garden]

How strange that all these cucumbers are failing? Mine seem less droopy now, but I still don't know what to do about the tiny fruit. May be I will sow some more at the weekend, and just watch what happens with these. it is annoying because I specifically chose this mini munch version for the kids, and I expect they won't have anything like that at my local garden centre. The plants just don't look as well as they did 3 weeks ago - that is for sure!

[Mike Vogel]

My ridge cucumbers are doing well in the unheated greenhouse. Before sunset i have been covering all the plants with bubblewrap and other soft material to keep the heat in, as we are getting frosty nights. More have germinated in pots of compost on my windowsills. The ones in damp kitchen towelling haven't shown yet.

I suspect the ones you have have been overwatered and exposed to colder conditions too early. But I've no experience in growing greenhouse cucumbers.

[Elle's Garden]

Thanks Mike and all,

It is a steep learning curve this year, and I suppose after everything germinated I didn't really think about the problems getting things through to maturity but, if this year is a little harder than recently due to the weather it is probably a good thing as I will hopefully learn good habits for the future - like don't rush!