I don't think I'm doing anything seriously wrong but then it doesn't take much to upset cukes does it?
Indeed - I did ask people to say how they were growing them, cos I'm obviously doing something wrong as well
I have 3 varieties growing this year, long John, Carmen and Delizia. They were started off in 4 inch pots of good multi purpose, mixed with plenty of grit. I always sow them a little deeper than suggested, I find the seedlings then tend to develop the first leaves closer to the compost surface, the stockier and less spindly they are the better IMO as the base of the stem is often the point at which they rot.
When well established, they go straight into the final growing position, in FRESH compost.
As soon as they start developing flowers I start feeding them with both phostrogen and nettle juice. The more nitrogen the better.
With the bigger fruited varietys, I usually nip off all sideshots and fruits to start with and get them well established before letting fruit start setting. When they really get going I let a couple of shoots grow and train them horizontally on strings. I'm convinced that allowing just a few side shoots and the leader to keep growing keeps plants tidy and crops are big. I always water through pots buried next to the plants and feed sparingly around the surface but always avoiding the stem.
Some sodden half rotting straw in between plants is watered every day, this keeps the atmosphere around the plants humid, something the cukes love and also keeps the dreaded red spider mite away.
Seaweed extract foliage feed really seems to work well with cukes, and at the first sign of a pest or disease and I spray them with vitax organic 2 in 1. The greenhouse is quite heavily shaded with cool glass as the hot direct sun seems to do them no favours.
It has worked upto now!
Totty