Courgettes - Fine; Cucumbers - Oh Dear

For the third year in succession it is all going horribly wrong with cucumbers although they have grown quite successfully in the past.  This year I did not have any seed so we bought two courgettes and two cucumbers together at Dobbies.  As you see the courgettes are doing fine and the cucumbers are looking pretty sick.  So what am I doing wrong please?

They are back in the greenhouse, we just took those three outside to have their photos taken.  Since we took the photo I have given up with one and thrown it on the compost and the other seems to have taken the hint and is looking a bit better. 

...and mine are just popping up this week now that night-time temps have lifted to 8-10C. Mind you, they've been in root trainers for a few weeks now but were not intending to show themselves until the conditions were right. They're germinating outside with just a plastic cover over them until they surface.

Given that i'm a lot warmer than anywhere (i think that's safe to say) in the UK, i would venture a guess that it's lack of warmth that is causing your dilemma.

Perhaps wait another 2 weeks or start some more seeds indoors (windowsill with aluminium reflector). It's not as if they take forever to germinate and get a move on.

The greenhouse is insulated with bubble plastic and has a gas heater so it hasn't dropped below 8C over the winter.  There are quite a few tender shrubs. bulbs etc which over winter in there.  I will try some seeds now.

Right,  I will mollycoddle the remaining cucumber and remember for next year.  Thank you.

Malcolm