[suziequeue]

Ages ago I was advised by somebody on here (was it you Northfifeduckling?) to repot my cucumber into a grow-bag.

So I repotted one and left the other in its pot.

After a rocky start (Pic 1), the repotted one found its feet.

Here are the comparison photos......

So - an amazing difference.

Mind you - nothing compared with my friend's cucumber (Pic 4)

[deepinthewoods]

excellent!

[deepinthewoods]

now feed the life out of it!!, i mix a good trowelful of fresh chicken poo (which i collect from a tray under the perch) in a builders bucketful of water and put it in the polytunnel to warm up and get stinky for a day. Try a potnoodle potfull in a watering can a day.ive used it neat before    

[suziequeue]

Ah - was it you who recommended it deepinthewoods. I searched everywhere for the old thread... sorry.

I have got sheep poo and nettle tea..... will that do?

[deepinthewoods]

im very glad it worked!
having looked at yours and your friends plants, i think they should be judged on overall yield the cues will develop in the nodes between leaf and stem and yours is much denser.if yours and your freinds were sown at the same time, i should imagine yours will be later due to the transplantation shock. you can either grow it as a long cordon, or as a bush. as it branches pinch out the tips, once theres 3/4 babys on each branch ( you can root these tips in water easily)
 really good support is essential, i tie the stems in to a net, every other node.
the feed i make is really thick and gloopy, more a soup than a tea! and it hums, after a week its positively alive! try it daily, itll love it, give it more when its really sunny

[suziequeue]

Right - I'll get going in the chicken pen tomorrow. We've just put all the bedding on the compost heap but there's loads around in the grass.

Thanks.

[Rumpleteazer]

I clearly haven't fed mine enough - they are looking rather small and sad!

[northfifeduckling]

my 2 squashes have taken all the goodness from soil and light - nothing else is thriving in the tunnel, sweetcorn and cucumbers all rubbish this year! 

[Fleecewife]

my 2 squashes have taken all the goodness from soil and light - nothing else is thriving in the tunnel, sweetcorn and cucumbers all rubbish this year! 

I don't think there's been enough light anyway - sunlight - for many crops to do well up here NFD.  My tomatoes are struggling to ripen, sweetcorn is slow although I think it will get there, butternut squash have lots of greenery but no fruit, other squashes are doing well but shading other plants as yours are, beans won't set properly so although we have enough it's certainly not a glut, and the cucs, after a good start now seem to have cucumber mosaic virus or similar so they are winding down early (I grew a new variety and I don't like it as much as the old one).  Mind you, none of my crops have had any attention since I became ill in July so we are just cropping what there is.  Outside the brassicas are romping away, ,loads of tatties but not enough sun and too much rain for the onions, shallots and garlic to grow and dry well.

[northfifeduckling]

so good to see you back, FW! Missed you! I hope you are back in good health now 

Don't mention tomatoes - blight in the tunnel, really disappointing. I can just make some sauce from a lot of half ripe half rotten fruits...tatties were blighted , too but we could rescue the tubers , that's something, I suppose  Cukes go back in the other greenhouse next year, never again with anything squashy nearby!
Lots and lots of weeds, I could spend all my time pulling (already seeding  ) thistles and nettles and docks. But I found a young elder tree  in between them, so I'm delighted  in between plucking thorns out of my fingers and rubbing my nettlerashed arms  ;D

[suziequeue]

After its initial shock being re-potted into the gro-bag, our cucumber is going great guns. It's produced three huge juicy cucs so far with another four or five in the starting gate. Tomatoes much better this year but we've been really strict about tying them up and pruning them and we are not surface watering at all so they are getting a better air circulation. I would say that we have fewer actual tomatoes but they are bigger, riper and no loosing so many to rot etc.

All in the new polytunnel nect year. Fingers crossed.

Squashes - same as everybody else - lots of greenery but no fruit. What is it?? - all wind and no trousers

[deepinthewoods]

dont let the fruits get big enough to start to form seeds, pick them young, that provokes more fruit. lots of medium ones is better than a few huge ones. and keep the branches short and tied in.good luck!

[northfifeduckling]

Squashes - same as everybody else - lots of greenery but no fruit. What is it?? - all wind and no trousers

do you get male and female flowers? 

[suziequeue]

Good point DITW

I have been waiting until they are pretty big so I will have a cull this evening.

The squashes have lots of flowers. I haven't really checked whether they are male or female. I will have a look tonight NFD.

Thank you

[northfifeduckling]

do what Fleccewife recommended earlier - break a male flower off and expose the stamen (?) and dab it onto the inside of any female flowers (the ones with a mini squash). Any of those I did not pollinate like that are rotting and falling off (like unpollinated courgettes). Although plenty of insects in the tunnel they seem to need some help ...