Hello! Growing Patio Snacker Cucumbers in 40L grow bags for the first time this year. It is a parthenocarpic variety so no need for pollination and should grow fruits of 10 to 20cm.
This is the size of my cucumbers after 10 days on the plant, am I doing something wrong? Any nutrients I can add?
I have cut them off as the ends are turning yellow and I am afraid they will go overripe and plant will go into death mode.
Plant itself looks very healthy and is putting nice, new leaf growth every few days. It’s also throwing roughly 10 male flowers to 1 female flower.
Thanks!
by AuroraIsle
2 Comments
What kind of light is it getting? It needs full outdoor blazing sun for hours to produce fruit.
Could be a few reasons. Watering being number one. Under-watering can be a big problem in container cucumbers. Use a water meter to ensure your cukes are getting water down to the roots. Insert it down to 20cms. Some heavy in peat soils can look wet on top…but a few cms down…they are completely dry. When plants aren’t getting enough water they can’t absorb nutrients. Over-watering can also be an issue. Back off of higher nitrogen fertilizer. As soon as flowering starts…you want to use a fruit and bloom type fertilizer like a 10-30-20 or 10-20-30 that are higher in potassium and phosphorus and lower nitrogen.
Imbalance of male to female flowers. Consider pulling some of the males to encourage more females. Your female flowers should outnumber the males. Try a few pollination by hand. Yes…it shouldn’t be necessary but sometimes nature needs a hand. Remove all cucumbers that look mature.
But are you sure you got patio snacker seeds? Those actually look like gherkins. We’ve been having a rash of mislabeled vegetable seeds over the last few years. Across the industry from big names to small names.