seeking cucumber advice

I have burpless climbing cucumbers in a large (13 gallon) plastic tub. I bought them at the nursery as a two-pack. Each pocket had 2 cucumber stems and I planted all four stems in the tub with a trellis. Basically there are two sets of stems (two stems each) about 12 inches apart. The leaves look really healthy and the plants is starting to flower al though it's not all that big yet -- each tenacle is maybe 12 inches long (but Spring has been very cool here).

1. Should they be flowering this soon (the plant still being fairly small)?

2. Were the two "stems" in each pack actually one plant or two (total of four)? I really don't think there's room for all four stems to grow up the trellis and two of them seem happy to grow over the edge of the container. I don't know if I should let things be or trim away one stem from each set to make more room. The tub is plenty wide (often used by folks for icing beer) and I have used it in the past for cucs with no problems, but only with one plant not two or four plants. What would you do?

Most likely, the flowers are the male flowers, so it's not a big deal if they flower. It's only the females (with the little miniature looking cuke attatched) that produce the cucumbers. Usually, the boys show up for awhile, getting the bees' attraction and then the females show up later on.

Yep - what Steph said...

Your cukes look fine and healthy to me. I would leave them alone and wait for the female flowers to show up. If they won't all fit on the trellis, just let them do their thing and trail over the sides of your tub. I think they look great!

Oh but they do have some flowers with little tiny cuc-looking stems befor ethe flower -- I just added a pic so you can see (separate post below entitled "girl flowers"). Does this mean I can now hand out cigars that say "It's A Girl!"?, although I had no idea ccumbers produced both boy and girl flowers. I guess I need to go back to biology class to review the Birds & The Bees (& the Cucumbers).

Thanks for the help. More thoughts on this are certainly welcome, as well as suggestions on how to keep them healthy.

This message was edited Jun 13, 2010 2:36 PM

This message was edited Jun 13, 2010 2:52 PM

They're in a pot so it's a little more difficult to over-fertilize as a lot washes out when you water. And you water more often than plants in the ground. Personally, I am organic and use only fish emulsion to fertilize. I foliar feed (spray onto the leaves) every 2 weeks and the plants love it. As long as you start with good quality soil with lots of organic matter that is all they need, a little boost here and there. Squash and melons don't like their leaves wet - it leads rather quickly to powdery mildew. Not so much an issue here as we are very dry, but where you're at the humidity will help bring it on. Keep 'em watered and fed and check for bad bugs and you should be fine;o)

I don't have very good luck with regular cukes here. I never seem to get the timing right and we get too hot for them too fast. That's why I still try every year but also grow Armenian cukes - that way I'm sure to get cukes anyways - lol... Armenian cukes are not a true cucumber - they are a member of the melon family (C. melo) - so they handle the heat better. They taste just like a cuke, though milder. And they are burpless!