[fizz]

Wondered if any body had any answers as to why my cucumbers are starting to form and then shriveling up, the variety is la diva, have grown them before very successfully, I have 3 plants in the greenhouse in marshalls deep growbags, with b&q verve multi purpose compost, the plants are very healthy, lots of leaves, up to the eves of greenhouse have had only 1 cucumber so far, many are forming but just shriveling up and falling off, been kept moist but not over watered and fed with tomato food, anybody have any ideas what I'm doing wrong?, thanks.

[mumofstig]

Are they in direct sun, if so, try putting some shade up for them.

[Springlands]

Also cucumbers like a moist atmosphere so water down the greenhouse staging and flooring but do not let the stem of the plant get wet as it will rot away.

[jaydig]

My Carmen cucumber plant was like that. I had one nice cucumber, then all the others shrivelled and came to nothing. This went on for a couple of weeks or so until, one day, the leaves started to go floppy. When I checked at the base of the stem it looked like the plant had stem rot, but not too badly. I carefully brushed some of the compost away from the bottom of the stem and applied some hormone rooting gel all round it, and then carefully brushed the damp compost back again. I did this again three or four days later, and kept the plant only just moist enough to keep it going. It's now taken off like a rocket, and is setting cucumbers all over the place. I don't know if the rooting hormone helped to produce more roots, or if it was just coincidence, because I don't want to disturb the base of the stem to look, but it's definitely healthy now, and producing cucumbers like crazy.

[Totty]

Keep the humidity as high as possible, feed with a weak tom feed every day until fruits start setting, then start feeding with a high nitrogen feed from then on.

Totty

[fizz]

Thanks for the replies so far, I have been damping down the floor, and have checked for any stem rot, but all healthy and a good root system, the only thing maybe is they are not getting enough sun as the plum tree in the neighbours garden is shading a lot of my greenhouse because the branches are hanging so low with the amount of fruit, do cucumbers suffer if not getting much Sun?

[rosiecider]

Hi

To stop the stem rot I use an empty (duh) tonic water bottle cut the bottom off and dig the lid end into the compost and water into it.... works for me.

[mumofstig]

do cucumbers suffer if not getting much Sun?

Not usually, I find they prefer a bit of shade - as long as they're not pitch black - they should be ok.