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ReptileAddiction
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Time To Replace Cucumbers?

So I tried growing cucumbers in a 5 gallon pot. I have 2 large fruits and the vine has stopped producing more. It puts out female blossoms but they turn yellow and shrivel up and fall off before they open. IS this because it has outgrown the container? I harvested one fruit this morning and plan on harvesting the next one tomorrow. After that do I rip it out? Will it produce more now? If I do have to rip it out is there a way to root a cutting instead of buying another start? Would it be better to buy a start now or direst sow from seed? Thank you!

imafan26
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Stress can cause plants to stop producing. If it is too hot, drought stress, pollination (if it is gynecious), and allowing fruits to get very large on the vine can all stress plants and they will not produce very well.

My plant is doing what yours is, except the tip of my plant broke, but a side shoot is growing. I had two large fruits which I left on a bit too long and now it is very hot so the fruit isn't setting all that well. My plant is still producing flowers though so I am going to feed it and make sure it gets enough water. There isn't much I can do about the heat except try some shade cloth. It looks relatively healthy otherwise so I am not ready to give up on it yet.

6sparkpug6
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I have two plants in about a 1 1/2 or 2 gal pot... Not ideal but it's what I have for now. Mine is still producing female blossoms but it hasn't been for a little while before. Not exactly sure why but it was right after I picked two of cukes.

Yes, how is the weather? My pumpkins aborted a female due to a heat wave we had here (I don't grow that many so every one is important to me). Is it getting enough water with proper drainage?

Good luck! Hopefully those females will start opening up soon!

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ReptileAddiction
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We have had ok weather. A few weeks ago we had some days where we actually got a tiny bit of rain. More recently it has been nicer with day highs in the low 80's to high 70's.

6sparkpug6
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ReptileAddiction wrote:We have had ok weather. A few weeks ago we had some days where we actually got a tiny bit of rain. More recently it has been nicer with day highs in the low 80's to high 70's.

And how were the nights?

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jal_ut
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https://www.soilandhealth.org/01aglibrar ... 7ch29.html

Investigations into the roots of cucumbers have shown that the roots go to 4 feet deep and spread maybe 7 feet wide filling the area with rootlets. That is a lot of volume for the plant to extract water from. Hard to think a cucumber plant could be happy in a 5 gallon bucket.

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ReptileAddiction
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jal_ut wrote:https://www.soilandhealth.org/01aglibrar ... 7ch29.html

Investigations into the roots of cucumbers have shown that the roots go to 4 feet deep and spread maybe 7 feet wide filling the area with rootlets. That is a lot of volume for the plant to extract water from. Hard to think a cucumber plant could be happy in a 5 gallon bucket.
Well this was an experiment so I am not that concerned about it. I did get 2 nice sized cucumbers from it and it is continuing to grow. Tomatoes go that deep and they can be happy in containers so I see no reason that a cucumber could not do the same. If I had room in the ground to give it I would be growing it in the ground but until then I am going to keep growing them in containers even if I only get 2 fruits :> .

Next year I am going to grow it slightly differently. I plan on giving it a larger pot, I'm thinking a 15 gallon. I also plan to give it a trellis instead of caging it. The cage worked well but I think they vines would do better and look nicer on a trellis.

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Are you fertilizing the plant?

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jal_ut
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After that do I rip it out? Will it produce more now? If I do have to rip it out is there a way to root a cutting instead of buying another start? Would it be better to buy a start now or direst sow from seed? Thank you!
Lots of good questions. I have never grown cukes in buckets, though I have grown cukes for many years. Perhaps you will teach us in the end?

I do know that cukes will sometimes bloom and put on a crop, then take a breather before blooming again and putting on another crop.

I always grow cucumbers from seed. They come up and grow quickly. Play with that. It is less expensive if you can grow them from seed. On the other hand, perhaps you would rather buy a small plant from the nursery than be bothered? Again, it is pretty much up to you what gives you pleasure, or fits your time frame.

Here, I plant cucumber seed June 1 or thereabouts, and it grows till frost the first week of September most years. I am just now getting my first fruits from the June 1 plantings. Takes them 60 days. You would need good weather into mid October if you are to get some planted now. I don't know your frost dates so hard to advise. Do you even get frost?

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We do get a little frost(28 degrees is like the lowest), my palms still have damage they are growing out of (last year was a particularly cold year). It starts to get colder in november. It seems like the roots have filled up the pot. It is starting to slow down. I will try giving it some fish emulsion to see if I can nudge it along, I have been slacking on that so that could help me out quite a bit. If it still isn't growing within a few more weeks I will yank it and replace it with a new one. It is definitely possible to grow them in pots but I think they will do 100x better if given a 15 gallon container or so.

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applestar
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I was going to try growing a variety called Littleleaf (a letter and a number) in a container, but I somehow lost the packet of seeds. :roll:

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ReptileAddiction
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I looked up that variety and it seems like it would be suited for container culture. I might just have to order a packet :) . I don't even know what variety I was growing. It was just the one that I found at the nursery.

6sparkpug6
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There are actually 3 plants in my 2 gal container. One of them is doing very well. It just had about 5 or so females this past week. The other one is smaller but is still nice. I think it might have been the one that already had the 2. The third is very small and crispy (odd.. Not sure why exactly) but it has 3 or so females on it. I for sure thought they wouldn't grow but one is getting rounder. So I'm not sure about the container size affecting it too terribly much for the topic you are concerned about. My pot does have good drainage though.

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ReptileAddiction
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Wow 3 in a 2 gallon? That seems like a lot. I will be interested to see what you get.

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Reptileaddiction, I don't have any pictures with me right now, but I will post a picture when I can!

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applestar
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I found the H-19 Little Leaf seed packet in my zip bag of DIY foil tape seedling tags. :roll: :?
The thing is I've taken seedling tags out of this bag several times over the last month and never noticed the only packet of seeds in the clear zip bag. :oops:

... I think I saw this in the Brain Games series -- "something -- selective?" blindness? Tunnel vision? :| ...

Started 4 mini(2") soil blocks of 2 seeds each to be thinned to one per block. The packet says 60 days which might mean they would make it to maturity before frost if it arrives in late October. Or I maybe able to position them in a protected spot. We shall see.... 8)

imafan26
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I have grown cucumber in pots before and they do o.k. especially early on in the season. I have two seedlings now that I need to get in the ground. My pots are in contact with the ground so it is possible for them to extend their roots into the ground. I haven't found much of that happening, but the cukes in the ground have longer vines than the ones in the pot.

I get about 20 cukes from my Suyo cucumber which is a heat tolerant variety. It is an English/Japanese type cucumber which is the only kind anybody likes around here. The heat tolerant cukes do slow when the temps soar into the 90's but it is the fungal diseases and slugs and snails that usually do them in. Suyo is parthenocarpic so practically all of the flowers will produce fruit. Some flowers will drop when it gets really hot.

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You can do the bucket grow with success...

I grew cucs in 5 gallon buckets last year in a soil with very good drainage. I watered them almost every day, mixed fertilizer in the soil and every so often gave them some weak liquid fertilizer while watering. I had three buckets with 2 or 3 plants each. Got quite a few cucs out of those plants. I think consistent water is a huge factor. The buckets were sort of sheltered, out of direct sun. The plants were climbing up a chain link fence, not that it matters, but I thought it was cool :)

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Well, I was at Home Depot and found some spacemaster hybrid seeds. I decided to yank my old vine and replant. This time I went with a larger container (I would say 8-10 gallons). The back of the seed packet said to plant 3 in a 12 inch pot which seems pushing it but I decided to plant 3 sets of 2 in the container and plan to thin to at least one possibly more. What do you guys all think? I expect to get some good production before the plants are killed (if they are killed) or before I yank them. When I pulled the other plants they were not even close to filling the 5 gallon pot with roots. I suspect that they could of grown a LOT more in that container but as to why they were dropping all the female blossoms I don't know. Anyway we shall see what these ones do.

j3707
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Git 'r done...let us know how it goes!

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Sorry it has been such a while, but the new plants have all sprouted and the first true leaves are getting bigger. Once all of the first true leaves are grown I will cull them down. They are looking really good though!

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applestar
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Here are the H-19 Littleleaf seedlings -- their leaves ARE tiny!
H-19 Littleleaf cucumber seedlings in 2" mini soil blocks
H-19 Littleleaf cucumber seedlings in 2" mini soil blocks
I'm hardening them off now to plant out. One or two in containers so I can bring them in, possibly another one for my SIL, then a couple in the ground -- hoping to put up a small hoop tunnel to boost temperature and extend season.

(Should I split mine off to another thread, or should I keep posting here? Don't want to hi-jack the thread if I get overly enthusiastic....)

imafan26
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I have grown cucumbers in pots before and they do ok, they do better in the ground, the vines are bigger. My pots are in contact with the ground so they do sometimes have roots in the ground as well.

Cucumbers do like heat, but I think they are something like tomatoes, they do not like extreme heat. There are heat resistant varieties that can tolerate slightly higher temperatures. They will produce more male flowers in the heat. They don't like any kind of stress, it makes the cucumbers bitter. They need to be kept evenly moist.

In the cooler months, I plant cucumber in full sun, but when it gets hotter, I plant where they will get some afternoon shade or I hide the cucumbers behind taller plants like a bean trellis.

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applestar wrote:(Should I split mine off to another thread, or should I keep posting here? Don't want to hi-jack the thread if I get overly enthusiastic....)
Of course you can keep posting here! :) Mine have their first true leaves so I thinned them out today to 3 in the container. They grow like mad in this heat! I will (try) to remember to post pictures later but it might not be till this weekend...

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applestar
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:D OK! :D

Roots started growing out of the soil blocks so I uppotted one block in a 4" pot, planted two in an 18qt storage tote, and one in the ground.

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@reptileadditcion

I've gotten at least 10 cucumbers from my pot so far! I am actually shocked that they did this well!

They are still growing strong and I will update when I get more!

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applestar
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A little hard to see -- sorry for the lousy photo -- they're starting to bloom 8)
H-19 Littleleaf
H-19 Littleleaf

imafan26
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I have grown spacemaster. It is a bush cucumber and not a vine. I grew mine in the ground, not in a pot. The cucumbers are sweet and crisp on the day it is picked, but they do not keep well. they loose their crispness quickly so they are not keepers.

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applestar
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Here are the H-19 Littleleaf plants installed between a window bench and a bookcase:
image.jpg

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Wow. Yours look great! Mine are just starting to put fruit on now :? . They are still extremely small though. The fines are maybe a foot and a half tall. I definitely don't like the spacemaster. I have noticed that it just grows SO much slower which means that fruit doesnt come till later.

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applestar
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Growth has slowed way down now and female blossoms have become rare -- maybe needs more light -- though another female just finished blooming and looks like will develop a fruit at the top of the trellis on the window side.
image.jpg

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applestar
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Well, my H-19 Littleleafs have slowed down drastically as I mentioned before, and now many new female blossoms are failing to set fruit. It is still slowly being overcome by what appears to be some kind of mildew -- it doesn't look like powdery mildew which I'm familiar with, so maybe downy mildew. I have been clipping leaves off as they become useless rather than clipping off all affected leaves which woul basically defoliate all the vines. (I realize this would not solve the problem and the vines will remain infected, but it's the best I can do since I can't count on rapid foliar growth to replace the lost leaves....)

Another threat to the vine emerged -- one of our cats likes to lay on the FiOS box on the low bookshelf to the right of the plant and, to get to it, she jumps up from the windowsill. I found some new vine tips and side shoots wilting from being broken off -- I'm supposing she didn't quite make the jump and fell or was lazy and climbed on the tomato cage. :roll:

:evil: LAST STRAW :evil: was suspected since last fruit harvested had a tiny hole in it and DD discovered a caterpillar next to the harvested fruit on the counter -- she dispatched it without showing me.
-- Last night I noticed that the smaller of the two fruits that are next in line to be harvested (but hadn't been growing bigger at the same ratw as the other one) had what sppeared to be a bright lime green chewed up cucumber mash on its side. When I touched the fruit to examine it, it felt "hollow".

I examined it more closely this morning and it fell off in my hand -- it had a hole in the stem end:
Hole in stem end of "hollow" cuke fruit
Hole in stem end of "hollow" cuke fruit
I cut it open and found this mess and a larva :x
Pickleworm?
Pickleworm?
The thing is, I have never seen one of these in any cucumber I grew before. Is this a pickleworm? ...or maybe a melonworm?
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imafan26
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Yes, it is a pickle worm. Usually you will find a small hole on the fruit where they were laid by the moth. Covering the fruit with a newspaper tube or mesh bag helps. I get them once in a while but thankfully not that often.

I have a different variety of cucumber in my garden now callled Tendergreen. It looks like an English cucumber and gets quite long and is non-bitter. It is performing well and is actually resisting mildew much better than Suyo.

https://entnemdept.ufl.edu/creatures/veg/pickleworm.htm

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My cucumber is not doing well. It is covered with powdery mildew and has yet to actually set fruit. The vines are still only like a foot and a half tall. I am thinking I am just going to yank it. I am starting to question how viable cucumbers actually are in a container. I might try again in a few months when it warms up but cucumbers are so cheap and there are other things I would rather grow that cost a lot more in the store and will do much better in containers. I might be able to find a spot to grow some in the ground though.

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applestar
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:x It looks like some of the pickleworms managed to grow through full cycle to maturity. Found this one on the wall near the ceiling this morning, and DD caught another one last night and fed it to one of the cats :twisted:
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ReptileAddiction
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Well on the bright side you actually got fruit. :)

I ended up yanking mine a few weeks ago and replacing with Kale because they were just not doing anything.

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rainbowgardener
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Yeah, even in Southern Calif, Nov is just not the season for cucumbers! :)

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Yes that is true. Mainly because the powdery mildew is SO much worse now. Come August-September is just decimates any squash related thing. I just pulled my still producing peppers yesterday.



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