My cucumbers have wilted

I may have called my blog ‘basically its growing’ but my cucumber plants have chosen a different path in life.  Their path was rather short; my cucumbers have wilted.  I got given a small book on how to grow vegetables last year and for cucumbers it specifically says “easy to grow, great for beginners”.  I can only conclude that my book is lying as I cannot grow them. 

The saga began last year when I bought my very first two young cucumber plants from a nursery.  I envisioned my very own crop of this tasty salad staple.  Then a couple of weeks later for no obvious reason one simply curled up and died.  I was devastated.  No I wasn’t, but I didn’t think I was exactly going to get fat on one plant so I went and bought a second.  Back to full strength I returned to my vision of ripe cucumbers.  And then the second died…. And then the third.  Deflated I gave up at this point. 

My approach this year has been different, I figured they way to defeat wilty cucumbers was with numbers so I purchased a packet of seed at the Chelsea Flower show and set too planting in February.  Now I may have been a bit keen but up popped my seedlings, bright green and healthy.  I thought good, I felt smug, I had cucumbers and lots of them. 

Here they are as of last week in their seedling tray:

And this is them now:

Clearly they are loving life.  Not.  I have obviously done something terribly wrong, made some critical cucumber growing error.  All I did was transplant the seedlings into individual pots so they had more room for their roots.  I would like to tell cucumber plants to do one, but after some deep breathing I will try again.  Luckily I still have time and half a packet of seeds on my side, but very little patience.  If I don’t get even one cucumber there will be tears…