Topic: Melons and Cukes

[Barnowl]

My Minnesota Midgets are only about a foot high and in a modest 7" pot (preparatory to potting on) but have already produced flowers.  Should I pick these off and let the plant get a bit more vigorous?  (No roots are coming through the bottom of the pot yet).

Ditto with my Petita cucumber but that's in a much larger pot.

[pammiep]

Hi Barnowl, the same thing is happening with my F1 hybrid cucumber (pepinex) I think and is only about 8 inches but has lots of flowers and loads of little cukes.  Is this normal or as you say should we take some off.  pam

[davyW]

You should not allow any fruit to develop at all at this stage. Mine are about 3 feet high and i have remove all the developing cucumbers below 2 feet
.

[Barnowl]

Thanks DavyW - flower picking will commence.

[davyw1]

Perhaps i should of also given an explanation for this.

It encourages strong root growth.
The roots are not trying to feed every thing at once consequently you get better stem growth. Don,t try to grow your cucumbers to big at the risk of poor growth to the other fruit.

A TIP. Where possible nip off the tendrils if they have not bound onto your support , if they get to bind onto its own plant or stem of a cucumber it will choke it.

DavyW

[pammiep]

I noticed last night that all the little cukes had all gone yellow and dont look very healthy.  Do you think they will recover if I take all off and flowers? thanks. pam

[Barnowl]

A TIP. Where possible nip off the tendrils if they have not bound onto your support , if they get to bind onto its own plant or stem of a cucumber it will choke it.

DavyW

Thanks, I'll watch out for that.