What's wrong with my Cucumbers?

I put out 5 or 6 seeds and had 3 plants sprout within a normal period of germination. This was over a month ago. The plants have not grown any more now for 2-3 weeks or more. Any ideas? ~~~ Carol

Have you grown cucumbers in the fall/winter before?

No this is the first time. When I researched "Sweet Slice" cucumber growing conditions stated: can plant mid spring to mid August (that's when I planted them), temp 60-90 degrees, Germinate 8-10 days, Full sun, Maturity 63 days; manure or compost, do not let plants dry out
So I figured if they can be planted in mid August that they might grow until the weather changed drastically. At least get SOME cucumbers. The temperatures have been hovering correctly up until a couple of days ago, but they haven't grown in a number of weeks.

If you planted those in mid-August, I would have expected some sizeable vines with fruit by now.
Are any of your other crops having problems as well?

At my house, everything (plant) has problems. :-( (My ground is a problem.) I have extremely compacted horrible clay ground. Unbelievably hard. I have ammended some areas multiple times and either the decent soil gets washed away by rain, OR it compacts back down to hard ground.
I have ammend the soil (A LOT) over in the long strip where I have had watermelon, cantalope, and tomatos (and the cucumbers) growing. (I have worked on ammending this strip for about 4 yrs) My tomato plants themselves grew well, but the flowers did not make fruit until the last couple of months. Now I have bunches of green tomatos that have not finished developing as of yet. My guess it they should have approximately doubled in size from what they have been for at least a month now. My cantalope produced surprisingly okay (it was a shocking volunteer), but required multiple layers of mulch, straw, and such in an attempt to keep the moisture in the ground (even with a soaker hose).

Something I have noticed is that the nice fairly decent soft soil I planted the seeds in has hardened over the top and although I water (very often) every day, I'm not sure that it really soaks in the ground sufficiently. I also wonder if the soil (even though it was ammended to 'decent' soil) could it have compacted down again and the plants are having a difficult time surviving?

If you have any ideas on better ammendments to keep the ground a nice soil mix, please provide me with your knowledge.
Thank you. ~~~ Carol

Even though cucurbits need alot of water, be sure to allow the surface to dry out between waterings or they could become prone to damping off. Most cucurbits prefer a sandy soil, but they can do fine in a ammended clay soil if using raised rows for drainage. There are alot of diseases that affect cucumbers which can be induced by insects (I lost all of my burpless bush cucumbers to the spotted cucumber beetle this year), insecticides, or soil borne diseases. They really need at least almost full sun, even in Texas. I would give up on them for this year and start ammending the soil for next year. You might also want to try to find a variety that has alot of disease resistance. I have not tried it yet, but I read something about treating seed with a fungicide before planting, but I would ask someone else or research it before I tried that. Take care, Mike p.s. If you see a cute little rascal that looks like a green lady bug, kill it, it is not your friend.

Haven't seen a green lady bug, but GUESS WHAT?! I have one cucumber on the largest (far right) vine! I couldn't believe it. I got down real close to look at it to be sure. (I need new glasses)
The plants still look exactly the same as the picture I posted. Not a bit more growth, just the lone cuc

Congratulations! Just be sure to cover them with some sort of plastic on cold days/nights. Milk jug with the bottom cut out might work for the smaller plant. On clay soil you do not need to water as often as you do on sandy soil. You might take your finger or a screwdriver and stick it into the ground about an 3/4 inch or so deep and if it is still moist, do not water. That is what I had to do after drowning oak trees 3 years ago and fruit trees 2 years ago. The guys at the different garden stores will tell you every other day, twice a week, once a week, or anything without even asking what kind of soil you have. I read in some garden book about trees to stick your finger or a screwdriver about 3 inches deep to check for retained water before watering. Even though cucumbers need alot of water, a little too little water is still better than a little too much water. If you are having problems with soil runoff, then the suggested raised beds might not hold for you. If you are not doing a large garden area, you might bring in some landscaping timbers and stake them down or nail them at least three high and bring in some soil, compost, horse manure, or something and fill it in for a garden area. This would help with drainage and help keep your good soil from washing away as fast. You also might try a drip watering system. You can get a small kit at lowes for about $30.00 or if need a larger one, try EBAY. Take care, Mike

The area where my veggies/fruits have grown this summer and fall is a strip along my horse fence (worked on it off/on for 4yrs). I have tried to dig double depth of spading fork in as large an area as possible also adding a limestone block around the sides to add approx 4-6" more in height. With the ammendments I add to all this soil and bringing in other soil I would have thought it would be deep enough; maybe I need to add another block of height?

Good idea with the landscape timbers, but I'm wondering about how many years they would last before decomposing? We originally had used landscape timbers in front of our house for the wall and replaced it last year (with stone blocks) after decomposing.
I would really love to put up raised beds using stone, but am not sure how you get the stones to stay properly vertical until they set in the mortar (or whatever is used to bond them).

Drip irrigation may be a good idea also. In the spring I bought 3 soaker hoses to put in the 3 strategic areas I didn't want to go through as much drought time. The hoses didn't work very well. Our ground is so hard and compact that the water would 'run off'' and not soak down until it ran for a while. If it ran too long (fairly short time) it would start 'run off' again because the deeper soil had not been ammended and was harder and more compact than the upper soil that had been ammended. Many times I turned on the hose for the veggies/fruits and water would be running down our property (puddling in some areas) so I would turn it off and the next day the veggies/fruits looked wilted again already! ~~~ Carol

Next year use hay/straw/grass clipping or etc. to mulch your beds and keep the plants off the soil. Plants will be healthier and soil will stay more moist.