Failed Cucumbers

[pizendawn]

This year my cucumber plants have failed produce full size cucumbers.

I planted three cucumber plants in a large quality grow bag in my greenhouse.

Two of the plants were bought at a local garden centre, the other plant was of a gift.

All plants grew well, produced flowers and from them small cucumbers . This is when the problem arose, the tiny cucumbers got to about 25mm in length when they turned yellow and rotted. This happened to all fruit produced on every plant. The plants continued to flourish and reached normal size.

The end result, no cucumbers at all this year from my own plants. I have no idea what caused the problem and I have never experienced this problem before

Any help appreciated

[Elaine]

Hello pizendawn. I've had a few go like that on all of my three plants. I grow them in big pots sunk into the border soil in my greenhouse. I assumed it was because it was too hot and dry in there, as there wasn't adequate ventilation. Once I sorted that, I also put a couple of water filled gravel trays under the plants to increase the humidity a bit. I didn't have any more trouble.
I believe having the compost too wet can cause the baby fruits to shrivel too but I've never used growbags, so I don't know if that would apply. I would think it's difficult to hit the happy medium water wise, in growbags, with such a big plant as a cucumber but that's just guessing!

[pizendawn]

Hi Eliane, firstly many thanks for replying to my posting. I was starting to think I was not going to get a response to my question.

The possible reasons you have given why my cucumbers did not fully mature could well be correct. However, having grown cucumbers in a greenhouse for several years without a similar
problem does seem a bit strange. The other thing which mystifies me is the fact that the problem existed throughout the season and on all the plants without actually getting one full size cucumber.

But like I said previously you could well be right, having experienced the same problem yourself and overcoming it by making various alterations to the growing conditions. I must admit usually I grow my cucumbers in pots and this may have made the watering aspect a little more less accurate.

Because of the consistency of the problem I did feel it may have been caused by a disease or something, but having said that the plants themselve grew well and showed no signs of suffering.

Roll on next year when I will grow known varieties of plants and return to using pots and get my wife to look after them


Again many thanks for your reply

[Elaine]

You're very welcome pizendawn.
Do you feed the plants too? I use Tomorite once a week on mine, once they've begun flowering.
I walked into the greenhouse one afternoon and the mercury on the thermometer was off the scale! Shortly after that, I noticed the baby fruits withering, so assumed that the plant used up available moisture to survive, rather than to produce the fruits, which are mainly water.

It can be a mystery sometimes, this gardening lark!

[retropants]

i have to admit that my cukes did amazingly well, considering the heat we had earlier in the summer. ( I am not boasting !! ) I wanted to share what I did. I misted the greenhouse regularly and heavily (basically had the walls and roof dripping wet), and wet the floor a lot too (path down the centre). the cucumbers shared the greenhouse with chilis, aubergines & peppers, all planted in the greenhouse borders. all have done splendidly. I made a huge effort to keep it humid in there. I also left buckets of water on the floor, as I could not get there every day. watering overly generously about 3 times a week, maybe more if I could get down to the plot after work - I watered 2-3 times per visit, allowing the water to soak in for a while in between. i really did up the watering and misting while it was scorching, I think it made all the difference. I also fed weekly with comfrey. I hope this is helpful for next year. happy growing

[pizendawn]

Hi Elaine

Yes, I did give my cucumbers a regular feed of Tomorite. Like yourself we also had some spells of hot weather in Cornwall this year, although probably not so hot as some other places in the UK.

I wish now I had taken photographs of the non-maturing fruit on my cucumber plants. I do not seem to remember that they looked withered, I recall they looked more as if they had rotted.

For my birthday in July I was given a moisture meter, you know the type that tells you the level of moisture in your pots etc. I recall the times I used it to check the moisture level in the grow bags containing the cucumbers it indicated the moisture level was too high. However, I did not use the meter much and relied more on my own experience and that meant in the main they got watered daily.

I will certainly take greater care next year, if that is possible

Like i said in my earlier reply to yourself I still find it strange that all three cucumber plants failed to produce even a smallish cucumber and that at sometime throughout the growing season the conditions within the greenhouse and grow bags was not suitable to produce at least a couple of full size fruit.

I am still feeling a bit confused

[pizendawn]

Hi Retropants

I enjoyed reading about the trouble you went through to get great cucumbers this year. I would not dare to criticise your methods as they were successful and some of the things you did are also recommended by well known gardeners

Maybe I did not take enough care but like I said in my initial posting I have grown cucumbers for several years without a problem and this years failure to get full size fruit is a first.

The other thing I noticed was that some of the things you did to get successful cucumbers would not necessarily be suitable when the other crop in the greenhouse is Tomatoes, I understand Tomatoes do not need humid conditions. Yes, I had Tomatoes growing at the same time.

However I am sure some of the things you did I will copy if we hopefully get the same weather conditions in years to come.

Many thanks for your reply.

[retropants]

that's OK! maybe next year, if we get the heat again, you could hang some bubble wrap or similar, as a kind of partition for the cucumbers, and keep that half of the GH more humid? only a suggestion, I would try that if I had to have both the cucumbers and tommies in the same GH.

I cannot think, reading your comments, of anything that was done wrong, so I agree, very confusing.

[Elaine]

Hello pizendawn. The affected baby fruits on my plants turned yellow at first, then sort of shrunk a bit....I took them off the plant before they had chance to rot. Just a thought...did you remove the poorly little fruits from the plant?

[pizendawn]

Hi Elaine
The quick answer to your question is, no I did not remove the poorly little fruits from the plant. I cannot be certain but I do not think the fruits were big enough to handle. The plants have now died naturally and my memory is not so good as it used to be :

[Elaine]

I'm having some memory problems myself Very frustrating.

Well, all I can say is, better luck next year with the cucumbers.

I have begun growing mine from seed again these last three years, because I had problems from those I bought in garden Centres. Plants failing to thrive, excessive mildew and worst of all, Red Spider Mite infestations. I've not had any of these problems since I started seeding my own again...and no repetition of the Red Spider Mite.