Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Growing => Grow Your Own => Topic started by: samnorfolk on May 17, 2013, 10:04
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i must have planted around 20 cucumber seeds into modules with seed compost covered them with plastic bag and left on window sill and only 3 have come through...am i doing something wrong
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Put them somewhere warmer.
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How long ago?
And is the window south facing?
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Same here- 2 up out of 6, but thinking it's low heat /light even in the spare room. Will break out the (had for 5 years and never before needed) heated propagator and have another go.
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I had quite a good germination from standing them on a windowsill, but the tray was sitting on a warm hot water bottle :wub:
Worked for me ;)
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Cucumbers have a built-in suicide setting so if anything, from temperature to moisture, is not exactly to their liking they just die. I can grow tomatoes, peppers aubergines, squashes, courgettes with no problems but I'm lucky if I manage to get one or two plants to give me a crop out of the ten or twelve I normally sow.
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snap that! ::)
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never grown cucumbers before i got 18/20 germinated about 2in high with realy strong looking leaves but after all the stories ive read about them im scared to touch em now incase they commit harikari and snuff it lol :(
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Best not to even look at them never mind touch them! :ohmy: :lol:
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never grown cucumbers before i got 18/20 germinated
Getting them germinated is the easy bit, as far as I'm concerned - it's the keeping them alive that I have trouble with :dry:
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Same here Mum - the only new "idea" (meaning something I've not tried before) is keeping the greenhouse ones a bit drier than before - can't do that for the outdoor ones of course, although I have managed to get Marketmore to deliver the goods on the odd occasion.
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never grown cucumbers before i got 18/20 germinated
Getting them germinated is the easy bit, as far as I'm concerned - it's the keeping them alive that I have trouble with :dry:
Now I'm worried :unsure: I need to pot mine on :unsure:
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I've got 6 out of 6 telepathy cukes germinated and about 5 inches tall and on their third set of leaves and were looking good. And then I did the most stupid thing. I left them sitting in water overnight in the cold greenhouse where they have been for a good 10 days under fleece. The leaves have now gone a mottled yellow, and I'm not quite sure if it is a problem of the water, the cool temperature, or even getting potbound ... they are in 3 inch pots. They were rather scrunched in and have now re potted into the next size up with dryer compost in hope more than expectation. But I survived last year's tomato blight so what the heck. What is the main reason for those yellowing leaves, and have folk got through that period successfully ?
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I must have have tried more than a dozen places in my house to get cucs going.
North, South, East, West windowcills - with or without shading and/or seed tray covers.
Water from below, or not at all, etc, etc, etc.
99? failures later I have hit on the exact spot. South facing. Bright but out of direct sun. Constant 20 deg C.
I can now just chuck the seeds in. Ignore them. 10/10 germination this year. Growing madly like triffids.
But I don't forget the many trips to the compost bin with previous failures.
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Growing madly like triffids.
The first year we tried growing them outdoors having germinated them indoors this was too ambitious, as whilst it is very open and sunny, it just lacked temperature. We've grown Marketmore and Crystal Lemon for a few years, always indoors in the potting shed or polytunnel, and they thrive having germinated easily.
This year Piccolo di Parigi, a gherkin type, is getting a turn and again the seedlings are very healthy. A related plant struggling a bit to germinate here, are the two varieties of self-pollinating courgette whilst the ordinary yellow variety has been 100%.
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Most years I do reasonably well, germinating them indoors, getting about a 60% success rate. This year I've had three tries with Marketmore - previously successful - both indoor and in walk-in greenhouse in the garden and none have come up. I was beginning to think it was me, but having read others' experiences.....
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I've usually been alright getting cucumbers to germinate and pot on and then out when it's right for them - I grow the more hardy outdoor varieties. With it being so cold (with the odd blip of normal spring weather), I've left the sowing until much later than usual. The squashes that I sowed over 3 weeks ago and have been in the greenhouse are only just germinating, and that's only because of the brief warm spell yesterday, so I imagine the cucumbers will be much the same :(
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Most years I do reasonably well, germinating them indoors, getting about a 60% success rate. This year I've had three tries with Marketmore - previously successful - both indoor and in walk-in greenhouse in the garden and none have come up. I was beginning to think it was me, but having read others' experiences.....
Snap that exactly, mine were last years seeds but they did fine previously. :wacko:
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Lost a lot of seed to rotting off last year :( so my cunning plan this year was to chit them in damp tissue in my propagator. Put loads in (cues, courgettes, squash etc.) and yes, you've guessed it...nearly 100% germination, mostly within 2-3 days... Thought I'd lose a fair few to potting up but, er, no.... ::) :lol: