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| They are being grown indoors. They are bush champion cucumbers. I am using a homemade soap spray to kill fungus gnats, maybe that's affecting the plant. I cut off most of the leaves that looked like this. |
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| cutting off leaves that are still green aids in starving the plant. soap spray against fungus gnats isn't effective. Instead dissolve some of Mosquito Dunks in the irrigation water and use that to water the plants for the next 3 weeks . |
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| jean001a Do you know of any homemade alternatives to mosquito dunks? I can't go to the store during the week. I'm not old enough to drive yet and I don't have any money. Should I just leave all the dying leaves on the plant? |
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- Posted by Natures_Nature 5 OH (My Page) on Tue, Mar 18, 14 at 0:38
| Your yellowing leaves and fungus gnats are most likely from overwatering. You wont have fungus gnats if you don't overwater, water thoroughly, then let the soil dry, almost to the point the plant wilts. Fungus gnat lay eggs, the eggs hatch, the larvae live in the moist topsoil. The secret is not watering in sips, witch constantly keeps the topsoil moist, perfect breeding ground for fungus gnat. Again, let the soil dry thoroughly, almost to the plant wilting, then water thoroughly, let soil dry again, water, etc.. I bet you you can kill two birds with one stop, stop watering as often! Only when the plant shows some wilt is a full proof way. But, ideally you want to do it before you stress your plant to the point of wilt. You get the point.. |
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| dsi411: I use a solution of 1 part hydrogen peroxide(3%) to 4 parts water and use that for watering. Couple other things work too. Sprinkle some cinnamon around to deter the gnats-- this works best when you're bottom watering and there's a dry crust of soil on top. Also, you can make yellow sticky traps --- take a yellow card(construction paper,etc), stick in a clear ziploc bag, spread with a thin layer of tanglefoot or motor oil, and then hang around plants. Good luck. Kevin |
This post was edited by woohooman on Tue, Mar 18, 14 at 1:08
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| The cucumbers are in a self watering container so it doesn't dry out. |
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| To get rid of FG, I would do this: -- Keep the top surface as dry as possible. |
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- Posted by Natures_Nature 5 OH (My Page) on Tue, Mar 18, 14 at 20:28
| "The cucumbers are in a self watering container so it doesn't dry out." That explains everything. They don't dry out, so the roots don't get adequate oxygen. I would stop filling the reservoir and just use it as a normal pot. Let the soil dry thoroughly between waterings. |
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| Good advice Natures_Nature. I'll try that. I'll also try seysonn and woohooman's suggestions. Thank you all for helping. |
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| Indoors is always a problem with bugs...but do as recommended above, or you may try to put layer of small gravel on top of the soil as mulch (something like aquarium sand or pea gravel); fungus gnats like organics & they won't like gravel mulch (don't use sand!) To check if you need to water (if you stop using self-watering), you can use a skewer inserted few inches into soil & feel if it is wet or dry (touch it to your cheek or top of your palm, it will feel colder/damp, or dry). Is you plant getting enough sun? Rina |
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| Hey guys I like the idea of using it as a regular container but I saw that there are roots coming out of the bottom of the container into the reservoir of water and I don't want to kill all those roots by not putting water in the reservoir. Rina, yes my plant is under full spectrum lights so I think it's getting enough light. Do you all think I should just kill the plant and start over? Is there no hope? I was thinking of planting another cucumber from seed but this time put the container outside and only use my lights for seed starting and regular containers. |
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| I wouldn't start over. Why don't you just take it outside and give it a shot? Still tons of time to start another 1 or 30 if this one fails. Besides, you'll want it outside anyhow -- cukes need to be pollinated and doing it by hand inside sounds like a pain. Even if you transferred to a regular pot, a few damaged roots at the bottom isn't going to hurt it. Kevin Side note: Not sure what part of California you're in but I get Powdery Mildew pretty bad on my cucurbits if I don't start treating for it from the moment I plant outside. |
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| Hi woohooman, I'm from Southern California, the Inland Empire. Everyone, thanks for your help, I decided to just take out the plant. I'm gonna plant more cucumber seeds in that container but this time I'm gonna put the container outdoors. Hopefully that'll help. |
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| Oh. ok. Much like the climate I'm in. was hoping you'd have let it go and see if any of the suggested remedies helped. Can always learn by failing. Good luck with the new ones. For what it's worth, SWC's sound great on paper(especially her in SoCal), but they sound like everything needs to be prefect to be effective. If I was to try one, I wouldn't use anything but the famed 5-1-1 mix discussed so frequently in the container forum. I would think that root rot might be a problem and the 5-1-1 is designed to eliminate that problem as much as possible. Healthy roots, healthy plant... in most cases. Kevin |
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