Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I have a 100 gallon system with three growbeds. The cucumber plants I put in the middle bed are now taking over my basement. (I am working with MH lights, not sunlight.)

A few questions.

Can I trim the cucumber vines without hurting the plant? The huge leaves are cutting off light from my other plants.

I have a huge number of blossoms that I have been pollinating with a paintbrush but no sign of cucumbers yet. I've been pollinating the vines for over a week. How long does it take for cucumbers to appear?

The spinach, lettuce and carrots I have planted in my system don't seem to be growing much but the cucumber vines are huge. What does this say about what is missing from my system?

Leaves can be trimmed, I get quite rutheless with my burpless vines. It seems to take a while for the flower to wilt and little cucumber appear. I would say that you may be missing iron....if the leaves of the others are a bit yellow.

My cucumber still did alright without iron but did not set fruit, and my spinach and lettuce struggled to grow at all at the same time.

I found that cucumbers set an immature fruit (only 2) and then needed to be polinated (didn't happen - so the fruit withered and died) They are a male/female flowering plant, and females have a little cucumber behind. Apparently boys flower first and then the girls, perhaps I got an early bloomer or two. No cucumbers set at the moment though. And yes the plant is going wild.

Still struggling with the cucumber plant that is eating my basement. The plant is huge, putting out flowers (though less than before) but not putting out fruit. I hand pollinate the flowers with a paintbrush. The other plants, except for wheatgrass, in my system are failing to thrive. I ended up with some very thin, sparse lettuce. I have added iron from the garden store but have not noticed any change. The iron had other trace elements but no copper.

How long does it take for iron to show change? I have added two tablespoons over the past two weeks. The cucumber leaves are pale green. Some of the darker ones have almost yellow between the veins.

Why would the cucumber be growing so profusely while the other plants do not?

Thanks.

Not sure, but my most virulent plants, are also the cucumbers... where my pumpkin is suffering. not sure why... not enough experience with plants

It could be a lack of nitrogen because the leaves go yellow with there is not enough of it.
To know for sure if it is nitrogen the question is "does the yellowing of the leaves start on the older leaves from the bottom of the plant or is it on the younger ones at the top of the plant?"
The first is nitrogen deficit and the second is iron.

Without seeing picture of the plants it's hard,
You could aslo bee lacking in Potasium. Cucumbers are very potasium hungry and need a lot of it, specialy when setting fruit. If you can take a picture or two that would help.

You can tell the boy cukes from the girl cukes, right?

Not really. I just touch the paintbrush to every flower I find thinking that I'm doing what a bee would.

How does one add nitrogen? More fish waste?

Girl cukes have little cukes behind the flower, even before they've been fertilized. Boy cukes have just stem. When a vine first starts to flower, all flowers will be male, then later the girl flowers start.

More fishfood = more fish poo = more nitrogen. You can measure your nitrate to see how that's going. I would try to keep nitrate over 5 and under 40.

You can get away with being pretty rough on the cuc vines. Just train them out of the way of the light to your other plants and if it gets way too out of hand you can probably prune off what goes where you can't allow it. You will have to keep training it where you want it (tie it up, stake it, pin it down, under the steps and through the woods) of course it will probably keep reaching for the light and you will have to keep taming it on an almost daily basis.

Once the female flowers appear you will know cause there will be cute tiny little cucumbers behind the flower. Then your pollination will have more effect, just touch a male flower first with the paint brush and then the female.

I find I should wear long sleaves and gloves when handling cuc vines, otherwise my hands and arms will itch terribly later.