Cucumber production - what's normal?

It's my first year growing cucs & a bit disappointing. After losing a couple of plants early, I only had one indoor plant (Telegraph?) in our conservatory. I've kept it fed & watered & it grew to 7ft before I pinched it out. We've had four reasonable size & very tasty cucs from it & we'll get one, maybe two more, but the plant now has mildew (I've been removing the bottom leaves as they get badly infected) and has stopped producing new flowers. Tbh, I had thought it might go on producing through the season, but maybe I was misinformed.

So, this might be perfectly normal - I just don't know. Can you tell me what I can expect so I can plan for next season? Have I done OK or should I have done something different / or would different varieties be more productive? Unfortunately all of my ridge cucs have perished once they've been planted out on the lotty but that's another story  

Cukes can be really hard to grow. They like plenty of water but do not like to get their feet wet. They like warmth but also need a moist atmosphere. And even if you get that right they can still just give up and die.    This year has been particularly difficult year for cukes even in greenhouses just because of the lack of warmth and sunlight in many places. I lost four out of five plants and the fifth is not doing much so am trying again hoping that we get a good July/August/September. Hope your plant improves.

I have had plants affected by mildew in the past - I removed the leaves and the plant did continue to produce cukes but probably not as many as if the plant had not had the mildew. Regarding starting new plants - I planted new seeds about two weeks ago - they germinated within 5 days and now have several true leaves. They are greenhouse plants and should probably do OK provided we get some sunshine in July/August - anyway I decided that it was worth a chance.

Following on from Comfortably Numb's comments:


Maybe it is not humid enough in your conservatory 

Another vote for benign neglect here  I had no idea people found cukes so challenging, this year I have 1 telegraph and a beth alpha (I grow these every year) plus a gherkin outside. All of them are very bonny and I really don't do anything particularly special with them. I do make sure they are well supported and feed them once a week with seaweed extract plus they are grown in a mix of compost and manure (very heavy on the manure). I keep them on staging which keeps them free draining while allowing me to give them plenty of water.