[rcf100]

What am I doing wrong. All my cucumbers on my indoor plant go yellow and shrivelled. Of my 2 outdoor plants (which are also indoors) I have 2 cucumbers on. Picked one and the other coming off tomorrow, then same happened to that, all going yellow. The other plant is rubbish, thin gangly small leaves and mainly producing male flowers and females come to nothing.

So 3 plants and only 2 fruit off 1 of them so far

[Springlands]

You said that your outdoor plants are indoors - that is partly the problem with those two plants - it is probably just too warm for them indoors and they could be having difficulty with pollination. What type are they.

Cucumber are very sulky plants. They need a lot of water but at the same time you have to be careful not to get the stems wet or the plants just dies off. They need heat to grow but if they get to much the plants can go dry and crispy and again die off.

This has been a difficult year for cukes - I started of with six healthy indoor plants - so far four have died off - but at least I am getting some of the two left.

[rcf100]

I think they are burpless. I read on a website before I planted them saying they could go in or out doors despite the label saying otherwise

[davesellars]

I've got two plants (1 is an outdoor type) that are just inside the door of my polytunnel (permanently open at the moment).   I have about 10 cukes on one plant (a couple almost ready) and the other must have 15+ cukes on it growing at a frightning rate....  I did put loads of manure underneath them though and are watered well (but carefully).

[mumofstig]

are you feeding them?

[Agatha]

Mine are Burpless Tasty Green, all doing well outside in pots on a south facing wall (also grew Marketmore which has done really well every other year but only 1 survived to cropping size this year).  I kept a couple inside while I waited for friends to collect them & they both died.  No harvest yet, but lots of flowers and inch-long baby cucumbers.

I never grow any indoors as too much trouble with Red Spider Mite.  Tried one year and ended up with poorly plants & only one cucumber from 2 plants.  Can you move your outside plants outside?

[compostqueen]

BTG is meant for outside and does well there

Indoor ones are divas and will cock their toes at nothing. They seem to have a death wish. You can't give them a drop too much water without they keel over and can't be rescucitated. 

I'm growing four Cucino plants but one of them seems to have popped its clogs despite my best efforts not to over water it 

[JayG]

I've managed to partially resuscitate my remaining Passandra indoor cuke by covering it with a large translucent carrier bag to keep the humidity up - it still looks as if it would rather die and will soon get the chance as it's getting difficult to keep it completely covered now!

Neither of my Marketmore ridge cucumbers could wait to be moved outdoors to die so conked out in the greenhouse! I have sown another one which is only at the first true leaf stage so is probably too young to have contemplated the exciting possibility of heroic failure!

I usually do OK with Marketmore but what really gets me is that my neighbour has been giving me "picnic" cucumbers from her greenhouse for a couple of weeks despite knowing or caring so little about gardening that she doesn't even know what variety they are!   

[A Reyt Tayty]

My styx is doing brill now. I got three nice cukes off it, then the next ones along yellowed and died. Now it's throwing loads, bigger and better than ever. Also quite a lot of side shoots which are throwing nice cukes too. RHS says to stop any side shoots 2 leaves after a flower. If I do, it will mean losing quite a few cukes. Any opinions on nipping side shoots?

[rcf100]

I only have them in grow bags so maybe not deep enough? I feed them once a week with liquid seaweed, same as toms and I have no side shoots to be taking away energy. I'm feeling a little bit more confident about my indoors one as there are a number of babies now, nut I've had that before and they all yellow off. I can move outside as only in my garden and already struggling with a marrow and 2 squashes that need repotting. I could potentially repot where they are into a deeper container as are trained up a moveable trellis. what do you reckon to that idea?

[Springlands]

My styx is doing brill now. I got three nice cukes off it, then the next ones along yellowed and died. Now it's throwing loads, bigger and better than ever. Also quite a lot of side shoots which are throwing nice cukes too. RHS says to stop any side shoots 2 leaves after a flower. If I do, it will mean losing quite a few cukes. Any opinions on nipping side shoots?

If you do not nip off the side shoots the goodness of the plant may go into supporting the side shoots - however it might be worth your while to just leave things as they are and see what happens - I have done that in the past and got a good return from the plant - but it was in a better summer than we are having at present.

[Springlands]

I only have them in grow bags so maybe not deep enough? I feed them once a week with liquid seaweed, same as toms and I have no side shoots to be taking away energy. I'm feeling a little bit more confident about my indoors one as there are a number of babies now, nut I've had that before and they all yellow off. I can move outside as only in my garden and already struggling with a marrow and 2 squashes that need repotting. I could potentially repot where they are into a deeper container as are trained up a moveable trellis. what do you reckon to that idea?

Cukes have very delicate stems and if you try to replant from a grow bag to a pot you could destroy the stem. You could try opening up the grow bag and adding more compost to give the cuke more depth of compost. Keep feeding them but make sure you do not get the stems wet at any time - guaranteed to kill off any cuke. Good luck and hope all goes well.

[rcf100]

So if I put more compost up round the stem it won't suffer from rot?  I know you can earth up toms and they just grow more roots, is it similar for cues? I'm thinking about constructing a bottomless pot type set up for them if it will benefit them. Obv not with a pot but an old compost bag and some canes

[shokkyy]

I've got a couple of Burpless Early in a raised bed in my polytunnel, and they did look a bit sad for quite a long time.  But in the last couple of weeks, since the weather warmed up, they've suddenly grown like triffids and started putting off fruit. I've only picked two so far but there's lots of little ones on them now and growing strongly.

[Springlands]

Oops sorry you are right - could be a problem if you try to build the compost up the stem - as you say could cause rot - would be best to build the compost around the plant but not covering the stem - just to give the plants roots more room to grow and more supply of nutrients.