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newbie90

cucumber looking sorry for its self

Newbie90
9 years ago

Hey all, I'm a newbie and just wondering what is wrong with my cucumber, it's moist, watered and has been feed potash once a week for the last few weeks so why does it look sorry for its self? The tendrils are yellowing and dying and the leafs are curling and crispy as well as what you can see in the pictures.

Comments (10)

  • Newbie90
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    more photos

  • Newbie90
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    more pictures

  • Newbie90
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    more pics

  • WillyInYardley
    9 years ago

    Hi,
    Your first photo may show some angular leaf spot, but the others look like bacterial wilt.
    Cukes are plagued by a lot of diseases, and they are hard to avoid. You can find more from a USDA guidebook; the one I use is Pest_ID_Guide.pdf, for the Northeast U.S. Sorry, I don't know the entire URL.
    Problems like Cucumber Mosaic are transmitted by the cucumber beetle, which you have no control over, especially if your neighbors are also growing cukes. Some cucumber varieties are tolerant of these problems, and will continue to produce tasty fruit for several weeks even if they're infested. My favorite for the last couple of years is 'General Lee.' If you start your cukes from seed, you have a better chance of avoiding baddies like bacterial wilt, which probably come home with the plant from the nursery.

    Regards,
    Bill

  • missingtheobvious
    9 years ago

    What's the reason for the black plastic around the base of the plant?

  • ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
    9 years ago

    how do you feed a plant potash???

    and why every week ... in a POTTED PLANT ...

    i gave up on cukes decades ago ... they simply werent worth the aggravations...

    as a newb ... dont get disheartened over cuke.. on any level ...

    and with what looks like great soil below the pot.. why is it in a pot???

    ken

  • Newbie90
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    I put black plastic around it as I read a few places to do this, I have now removed it. I also read to feed potash to cucumber and that they need lots of feeding but I've only fed it twice. Also the soil may look good but it's full of stones as there is a car park the other side of the fence and this has continued underneath the soil and slowly broken up to millions of stones.

  • Newbie90
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    And I'm a newbie so a bit stupid haha :)

  • prairiemoon2 z6b MA
    9 years ago

    Newbie -- all newbies are a bit stupid and we were all newbies once! ;-) Are you planning a garden for next year? I would suggest if you would like to have better results you could try a raised bed on top of your rocky soil and ask a lot of questions as you go along with your growing efforts. If you need to keep growing in containers, the container forum is usually pretty helpful and some people there grow amazingly well in containers.

    The plastic around the base of your plant would be fine if it were in the ground, although I don't use it at all. In a small pot, it would not offer a good result. Might make the soil too hot and traps moisture which can lead to disease.

    Ken, I stopped growing cukes too, and tried them again this year and had a great year. I tried a new seed from FEDCO - Ministro - and it worked out really well. I have a glut of cucumbers all ripening around the same time right now. I didn't really see a cucumber beetle this year either, which surprised me. I imagine I got lucky and they will find me next year though. lol

  • Newbie90
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Thankyou for the advice, I'm going to do a raised bed where the stoney ground is and have a try at lasagne gardening in another part of the garden. I only got my garden in June, already learnt a few things from my mistakes. There is so much to learn though so thankyou for your help