[missmoneypenny]

Last year my cucumber crop was pitiful. I ordered plantlets and put them out on soil in   i had prepared with some horse manure in May or June (I can't remember). I grew them on little mounds as advised in some books, to prevent waterlogging.
For my efforts I got about 3 cucumbers in total. I really don't know where I went wrong.
This year I'm growing masterpiece from seed (haven't germinated yet). Any tips to ensure I get better results this year would be welcome. Should I apply some liquid fertiliser as they are setting fruit? Should I manually fertilise the female flowers? Thank you.

[sunshineband]

Masterpiece is an outdoor ridge cucumber: do not remove the male flowers as they are needed for pollination. You could hand pollinate some female flowers (the ones with the baby cucumbers behind them) if you like.

I find that cucumber seeds germinate very quickly indoors in the warmth, but once they are through the stem can elongate at an alarming rate unless they are in very good light. I move mine out into the greenhouse as soon as possible, often before the seed case has been shed, but I ma lucky in having a heated greenhouse. Indoors they will need to be on a bright windowsill with an aluminium=m foil reflector room-side to maximise the light.

Pot them on into a three inch pot when they have their first true leaf and start hardening them off about a week before you plan to plant them out. Being outdoors will give them good light too! Cucumbers are tougher than people think, and if you are caught out with a forecast of a late frost after you plant them out then a quick cover up with fleece will be fine.

I never plant mine on mounds: I think the purpose is to stop water pooling around the base of the stem and possibly rotting this, but I make sure They have nice free draining soil where they are planted. Any manure added must e very well rotted and well under the surface as this holds a lot of water, and fresh manure can also cause roots to burn. I add leaf mould or compost from a bag prior to planting out, and incorporate chicken manure pellets for nitrogen. Once flowers can be seen, watering once a week with tomato fertiliser will be helpful. If you plant through a hole in weed suppressant membrane, it keeps the fruit clean when the plants trail about. This year I am growing some up a trellis in a sheltered spot.

Hoe all that helps a bit!

[JayG]

Outdoor cukes do need plenty of sun and warmth, neither of which were in great abundance last year round here - my outdoor cukes (Marketmore) struggled a bit and the crop was below par.

I do find that commercial multipurpose composts don't always have enough nutrients to get them romping away, but that shouldn't be the case with soil enriched with horse manure as long as it was well rotted first, although even then feeding with tomato fertiliser is a good idea when they are flowering.

Did the plants grow poorly, or did they produce plenty of male and female flowers which mostly failed to set?

If it's the latter, you could try manual pollination, although you may find that the male flowers are a bit mean in the pollen-producing department which can make it a rather hit or miss affair.

[pigguns]

It's one of my rare success plants!  Always loads.  I grow Konsa (from Lidl packets)- in the spare room to get them going.
Water from the bottom one they are through, and through a bottle sunk next to the plant when it's outside.  On a manure mound.
I think the key is shade and shelter.  The ones in full sun never do very well, but I set up a debris netting shade and generally the best ones are round a side of the shed, so lose the sun after about 1pm during late summer. 

I set up a wind barrier so they are in a snug corner.  but that is it.  I don't feed them (maybe a spot of comfry once or twice)

[snow white]

Never had any success with cucs at all.  But I grow Cornichons which are really a pickling cucumber.  Let them grow to about 6" and use.  They are outdoor cucs and seem to grow without any real special care.  And you get loads off of one plant.

[mumofstig]

Never had any success with cucs at all.  But I grow Cornichons which are really a pickling cucumber.  Let them grow to about 6" and use.  They are outdoor cucs and seem to grow without any real special care.  And you get loads off of one plant.

I've never had success with cornichons, but can get cukes to grow successfully in the greenhouse, thank goodness 

The only outdoor cukes that worked for me were Crystal Apples 

[missmoneypenny]

Thanks so much everyone. My plants last year produced few flowers and even fewer fruits. It was a mix from Delfland which included crystal lemon and also marketmore I think.
I like the tomato fertiliser tip, I will definitely try that. i'll also dig in some horse manure (it's fairly well rotted, it's from the council) now to get the soil ready and probably plant out in June. Unfortunately I don;t have a greenhouse, I am growing the plants on the windowsill. I'm in south london so hopefully I'll get a decent amount to germinate that way.
Last question: with courgettes I get much better germination rates when I chit on blotting paper in a tupperware, anyone tried that with cucumbers?

[Robster]

Only Q's I've grown are Marketmore and they've always done OK.  I get a couple of early plants in the green house.  Currently these have half a dozen leaves.  I'll hopefully get fruits until the outdoor plants take over.

Interestingly lat year I grew some in 20 litre plant food tubs and I grew them up a balustrade that was quite brightly lit but direct sunlight for only an hour or two a day.  These did really well.

[JayG]

Unusual to have a cuke thread with no mention of their suicidal tendencies , even though the OP's plants didn't actually die of course.

I failed two or three years on the trot with all female greenhouse varieties whose older leaves bleached and died almost as quickly as they grew new ones (and then more quickly!  ) I put it down to scorching due to too much sun and maybe too little humidity, but careful positioning and shading didn't improve things much until I added fertiliser to the containers, so I have to conclude their food requirements were greater than my particular compost could provide.

Cukes and tomatoes are sometimes said to differ in their requirements for sun and humidity, but having seen vertically trained cukes growing like triffids in commercial greenhouses alongside tomatoes (with all doors and windows open) it can be difficult to believe they are that fussy...

Not much you can control when growing outdoors, so I'd just stick with making sure there are no doubts about the fertility of the soil/compost you are using, and hoping the weather conditions suit the sometimes temperamental little darlings better than last year, especially if growing 'La Diva'! (only kidding. )

[sunshineband]

Shhhh JayG, don't tempt fate lol.

[missmoneypenny]

Thanks everyone! Actually JayG I recall a couple did  just seem to shrivel and die. I find tomatoes easy compared to cukes, i think maybe they are to gardening what sheep are to farming ("sheep spend all day thinking of different ways to die"). I'll get working on the soil this weekend and hope for the best.

[wighty]

I planted five seeds and got five plants which I've now repotted into bigger pots.  They are still indoors on the windowcill  and have flowers and the beginning of fruit on them.  I've never had this much success before!  I do need to put them in the greenhouse soon though but the temperatures at night are still a bit low even this far south.  Will have to do something with them soon as they are getting rather attached to the vertical blind!

[pigguns]

  la diva.  Fussy little madam.  Clue is in the name.....

Konsas are off and running, starting flowers now, in shade cover in the greenhouse.
They'll be in or under fleece if it takes a turn, but nights forecasting 10C + now

[mumofstig]

la diva.  Fussy little madam.  Clue is in the name.....

Funny, but she's been a star for me the last few years 

[Trikidiki]

.......
I failed two or three years on the trot with all female greenhouse varieties whose older leaves bleached and died almost as quickly as they grew new ones (and then more quickly!  ) I put it down to scorching due to too much sun and maybe too little humidity, but careful positioning and shading didn't improve things much until I added fertiliser to the containers, so I have to conclude their food requirements were greater than my particular compost could provide.
........

I turned off the power to the heated propagators and my grow lights in the greenhouse yesterday during the mini-heatwave. Late yesterday evening I remembered I hadn't turned them on again. When I turned it on the timer was wrong so the grow lights came on. It was interesting that under their artificial light with no other light, most of the plants (mainly toms) looked almost black. The cucumbers had almost black top leaves but the bottom few leaves looked pale green, one cuke, however, was pale green almost to the top, I guess she will be the candidate to kick the bucket. I did have a problem with red spider mite in this greenhouse last year and wonder if this is an early sign of an invasion. Time for some action before they take hold if that is what it is.