Grow Your Own Magazine

hi all,
lastnight i started to trim some leaves off my tom plants as they were to many,as i was moving around in my greenhouse doing this i tryed to lift my cucumber plant up the string as the weight of it was pulling it down,
in doing this i snapped the main stem at the bottom which i was really peed off with myself,coz they have at least 7 cucs on,does anybody know if they will still grow a good crop if i try to mend them,any tips welcome,i have nursed them the best i could,
plllllllleeeaaasssssse help

finney

If the stem is snapped then that sounds terminal. How do you plan to mend them?

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Mark

Vegetable Kingdom blog

Oh dear, what a shame. Not sure if splinting will work but you don't have much to lose by trying. I would probably try putting the broken bit into damp (not wet) compost as it might root. I would take off all the cucumbers that are growing on it though so it can devote its energies to recovering. Good luck

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Happy Gardening,
Shirley

http://www.honeyjukes.co.uk

im not to sure mark,i thought of something like shirlthegirl sergested,then rap some tissue round it so it might bond itself back together any suggestions,i dont fancy try to put the snapped stem in the soil.

Finney

I don't think it would bond like a broken bone. However, the cucumber will root from the stem, you just have to be careful that the compost isn't too wet or it will rot instead.

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Happy Gardening,
Shirley

http://www.honeyjukes.co.uk

The bit in the soil may well reshoot as well. don't know if it would be better to try and reroot the top half or treat it like a graft and put it back together. A lot of plants can be grafted but I don't know about cucumbers. I only found out this year that tomatoes can be grafted.

Ian