What's wrong with my cucumber?

[wjcmpbll]

Hi again.

I have a cucumber plant growing in a 5-gallon bucket. It's big and healthy, and about 2 weeks ago starting growing female flowers. The bottom-most flower opened and I tried pollinating it with a male flower. I don't know if it worked or not. The blossom eventually withered but never fell off - it's just attached to the end of the baby cucumber. The thing is, the baby cucumber has barely grown at all since then. It's maybe an inch long now. Also, there have been about 4 or 5 other female buds but none of them have blossomed. The baby cucumbers behind them are turning yellow - I guess because they never got pollinated. Why is this happening?

Additional info: I've had aphids ever since the one female flower blossomed. Recently ants have also been visiting. Yesterday I saw that several of the bottom leaves of the plant had turned yellow and there were bugs all over it. I pruned the yellow leaves and doused the whole plant with neem oil. While doing this I saw a single insect that looked like a yellow ladybug. A google image search indicated that it was probably a spotted cucumber beetle - which I was not expecting since the plant is in a bucket that I move around regularly.

No insects today so maybe the neem worked. Did they prevent the female buds from flowering? What happens to the baby cucumbers - should I prune them off and hope I get more chances higher up on the plant? What should I do?

Thanks.

[tedln]

It's not unusual for plants like cucumbers to abort flowers and fruit when the plant is under attack from pests. The pests either are chewing on the plant or they are sucking nutrients from it. The plant goes into a defensive mode and aborts the fruit. When it is healthy again, it will produce more blooms and fruit.

If you saw a spotted cucumber beetle, it's not as bad as a striped cucumber beetle. The striped beetle carries more diseases which it spreads to your plants.

Ted