give up on non germinated cucumber seeds?

Hi

I sowed Telelgraph cucumber seeds into 5 pots 15 days ago and put them on the kitchen window sil. One has germinated and is looking good; an inch tall and two leaves.

Nothing has happened with the other four - do I wait or give up and start again?

Thanks

 

I'd give them another week or so Roger, they may well sprout.

 

I say give them a bit longer. I've never grown cucumbers but I know with other seeds there have been many times when I've been going to give up on them, wife has talked me into giving them another chance, and they've turned up a week or two later.

 

I've given up growing Cucumbers from seed - not because I couldn't get them to germinate, that was never a problem, many/most years I just couldn't keep them alive. So I now buy plants at the garden centre and, given the multi-£ per seed price of F1 Female-only varieties the plants at the garden centre work out no more expensive than the seed was. More restricted on variety of course, but they perform and taste much the same as the ones I use to raise from seed myself.

 

Thanks guys

Yes they are probably getting quite cold at night, there's no double glazing so I guess that doesn't help.

I've actually just ordered a cheap electric propagator... I'll stick 'em in this so they're nice and warm

I've generally managed cukes from seeds OK. Last year I simply moved them out to early then that cold wet 'summer' last year killed 'em off.

 

I would give up on cucumber seeds that haven't germinated in over 2 weeks. I grow Telegraph outdoors and plant out last week in May (if warm)/1st week in June, so the 1st week in March seems incredibly early for sowing - are you intending to grow them in a heated greenhouse?

 

No, a non-heated greenhouse... hmm, maybe I've jumped the gun!

This year I'm starting to make a note of when I sow / plant stuff. I'm sure I started mid March for cukes last year but can't remember for sure.

 

I'm not growing cues this year but the last two years I started them at the beginning of April, they just don't like the cold!

 

Or photograph it if that suits you better? My camera stores photos on my PC in folders named with the date, so all photo folders are in chronological order which makes it easy to check back.

But I'm pretty good about filling in a spreadsheet with planed date to sow, actual date sown, germinated, pricked out, planted out, first harvest and last harvest, and it makes a good resource for future years. I just add more columns for the Actual Dates next year - so the previous year's actual dates are alongside for comparison.

 

Yes great idea! I can photograph them with my phone and send the photo straight to a great app called Evernote, where I can also add notes...

 

That sounds like an application waiting to happen

I'd recommend just storing the images on your PC, rename the IMG1234.JPG to IMG1234_SomeDescriptiveStuff.JPG which retains the original "IMG1234" bit for chronological ordering, even if the file edited and redated, and then the "SomeDescriptiveStuff" part of the filename is freely searchable ...

 

Dear God, whatever happened to scribbling the variety and date on a plastic label?