Feeding Cucumbers

[mew]

Can you feed your cucumber plants with organic tomato feed? If so are the ratios the same?

I tried to grow some cucumbers last year and they ended up having a magnesium (I think!) deficency. I was feeding it on a seaweed feed I purchased from my local garden centre so tried reviving it with epsom salts but it was too little to late I think.

Just want to try and get it right this time.

Thanks

MEW

[Marc]

Hi Mew, are you sure what your cucumbers got was not 'red spider mite' which cues often suffer from. Were they growing in a greenhouse? - red spider likes it hot..

[Millymollymandy]

I grow outdoor cucumbers and don't feed them anything (extra). There's already muck been dug into the soil and all my veg plots get a balanced organic fertiliser spread over and raked in before sowing time. Cucs don't need anything more - especially judging by the amount I get from them!

I'm limiting myself to only ONE plant this year!!!

[Bobzilla]

I've always found that unless you get hit with something like Marc suggested all cucumbers ever need is water and lots of it. As soon as the fruits start growing they just suck all the moisture out the ground and I usually struggle to keep up!

[mew]

Hi Marc

Definitely not red spider mite i checked in all my books and even put several posts on here, but yes they were grown in my unheated greenhouse.

This year then I'll try some organic peat free compost with some well rotted muck. Any preference on ratios? is the muck best mixed in thoroughly or left at the bottom?

Sorry for the apparent stupid questions but im still very much a novice at growing my own.

Thanks

[Millymollymandy]

Are you growing direct in the ground, or in pots? And are these the long greenhouse type cucumbers or the spiky outdoor ones?

I have never grown greenhouse cucs so don't know anything about them, but maybe if you are growing in the ground in a bed that's been well used before, it has been depleted of various minerals or something.

What do you fertilise the soil with?

[Cheezy]

Can you feed your cucumber plants with organic tomato feed? If so are the ratios the same?

I tried to grow some cucumbers last year and they ended up having a magnesium (I think!) deficency. I was feeding it on a seaweed feed I purchased from my local garden centre so tried reviving it with epsom salts but it was too little to late I think.

Just want to try and get it right this time.

Thanks

MEW

If anything if your cuc's were suffering from magnesium def, then tomato feed will be worse than seaweed. Tom feed tends just to be high in potash, and my toms always suffer from yellowing and I use extra epsom salts

[mew]

Hi MillyMollyMandy
Last year I grew my cucumber in a bit plastic pot fill with organic compost and some well rotted organic muck (horse I think!)

Hi Cheezy
Dyou think its worth mixing a bit of epsom salts into the the compost when I transfer my cucumber into its final home?

Thanks
MEW

[Millymollymandy]

Well it's not a problem of depleted or stale soil then! I have to admit I don't know what seaweed fertiliser contains in terms of Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium. I would have thought a fertiliser higher in potassium would be best as cucumbers are of the same family as squashes and pumpkins.

[Cheezy]

Mew, that might work but Epsom salts tend to be very soluble so they would wash out, if you get early signs of yellowing a liquid application if it's magnesium deficency will help. I'm not 100% thats your problem though.

I haven't grown cuc's heres the RHS:

http://www.rhs.org.uk/vegetables/crops/cucumber.asp

[mew]

Thanks for that

When potting on into bigger pots is it okay to put them a bit deeper as my cucs seem a bit leggy - from sitting on a windowsill no doubt to germinate ??

Thanks again

[Millymollymandy]

I do with tomatoes and know they are OK to do so, and did the same with my chillies not knowing whether they'd be OK or not, but they are fine and growing better now.

I'm not sure about cucumbers though!