My vines have started to only produce female flowers so I just harvested what was on there to hopefully promote males to pop up. This is my “harvest” 🙄. The largest is about 6 inches, smallest 2 inches. Where did I go wrong? I was leaving them on there hoping they would fill out or something but they stopped growing any larger. I have also been hand pollinating since the beginning just in case we didn’t have enough pollinators but that clearly did no good. What can I do moving forward to make better cucumbers, or should I just scrap the whole plant and grow something else?
by amistarr666
19 Comments
Shhhh they’ll hear you and develop a complex!
I’ve heard that it could either be improper watering or pollination issues
Watering or weather got (to hot or cold)
This looks like inconsistent watering. Cucumbers grow and “fill” from the stem end downward. Your watering improved as these cukes grew, such that the bottom halves of most are looking good, but the plants didn’t have enough water in the first days after pollination. This isn’t a problem with pollination — you wouldn’t have cukes at all if you weren’t pollinating the female flowers — but you need to work on your watering schedule/system to get more consistent produce.
I think they’re pretty adorable. 💕
They’re trying to be gherkins before they actually are
Watering. Once it gets really hot my cukes start doing this. Personally I just pull the plant since it’s only going to struggle in 100+ f temps in container like I got.
This just made me lol. Thank you. 😂
Last year they had sex with a yellow summer squash
Crookneck cucumbers
My guess too hot
Mine has the same issue
Performance anxiety, maybe.
They’re perfect for making a green relish!
This happens to me at the early stages of harvest, the first couple cukes. Like everyone else says, it’s watering, but the plant is putting out its first fruits and acclimating itself to the environment while you’re figuring out the watering schedule. Water deeply and as infrequently as possible so as to give the plant enough to regulate itself without going overboard
I usually use these ugly ones for pickle chips!
Did you just tie the sticks at the top for that trellis? I’m also doing grow bags and may do this!
You picked way too early
Inconsistent watering.
Ex farmer here
Containers dry out really fast in high heat. I imagine that’s what’s been happening, and as the commenter suggested, the soil may have gone hydrophobic from that.
My solution might be to place the container in a tray before watering, so that it sits in a couple inches of water, and then remove the tray after an hour or so. You wouldn’t want to leave it like that, or else the roots will rot.