leggy cucumber seedlings

[caroline7758]

A very sunny day last week made my cucumber seedlings shoot up so they are quite leggy now. Can I plant them deeper when I pot up, or will this make them rot?

[caroline7758]

[Tee Gee]

You can but try but on the other hand I would say you are a couple of months too early in sowing them in the first place.

I won't sow my seeds until mid May and because it is warmer and light levels are better they will romp away.

[squeezyjohn]

I agree - unless they're going to be in a heated conservatory or heated greenhouse then they'll just stall or get leggy sown in March.  I've made that mistake before with cucumbers, courgettes and all sorts of squash and managed to nurture them through to summer, but the plants didn't do as well as ones planted in late April or May.

[alkanet]

cucumbers do form roots along the stem, like tomatoes. You can see them on mature plants. Strictly speaking, they're both perennials, though I suppose they may now be bred to fruit themselves to death

[kGarden]

I try to avoid planting cucumbers deep as they so easy suffer from stem rot.  But when I have had leggy plants I have pricked them out deep, and they have survived ...

[caroline7758]

Oh dear, sounds like I'd better start again later!

[pumkinlover]

Oh dear, sounds like I'd better start again later!

But there again you could risk planting deep and if it fails you have time to sow some more seeds. What about putting grit or vermiculite around the stem ?

[caroline7758]

Can't bear to bin them (especially with the price of cucumber seeds!)so that's probably what I'll do. Someone told me we're going to have a warm Easter so who knows?