potted cucumber plant

[momof4girls]

I recently purchased a potted cucumber plant from a local gardening store. It looked great when I bought it, but I left it outside and while the temps werent to cold, it got really windy. The leaves looked wilted. I brought it inside, pulled some of the dead leaves off. I have been keeping it in at night, but putting it out during the day so it can get its needed sun. It isnt looking much better. At this point Im wondering if there is any hope for it at all. Ive never grown veggies in a container, so this is new to me. Any help will be appreciated. Thanks in advance for any help I wanted to add the tomato plant I bought at the same time still looks great, only the cucumber one looks bad!

[Kisal]

You probably need to move it to a larger container. I would be willing to bet that it's very root bound. Cucumbers need a container about 20" in diameter and 16" deep, plus you will need to provide a trellis for the plant to climb on.

Put your tomato plant in a separate container. The same size as for the cucumber plant would work best, but you can get by with a standard 5-gallon bucket if you have to. Punch drainage holes in the bottom, if you decide to use the bucket.

Use a good potting soil mix, not a garden soil. Add a healthy helping of perlite, to improve the drainage. About 3 parts potting mix to 1 part perlite would be good. You can add some worm castings, if you have them available.

HTH!

[momof4girls]

Both of them are in at least a 2 gallon container and both have a wire trelis around them to climb on. Like I said after that one really windy day the cucumber one just looks bad. The soil looks like a good potting mix. The store I purchased them from told me they could stay in these size pots. Maybe later this morning I will take a picture of the cucumber one, so you have a better idea of how it looks.

[hendi_alex]

If you up potted the plant from a small container to the current 2 gallon container, it can be very easy to over water the plants whose small roots are not pulling water from much of the soil at all. Over watering will cause a plant to wilt and turn yellow and will kill it quicker than just about anything. Be sure to let the soil almost dry out before watering. Be sure to check the water an inch or two beneath the surface when checking for watering needs.

Also hardening off has been discussed lots of times on this forum. If the plant was growing protected under shade cloth or in a bin with sides that protected it from both sun and wind for much of the day, then the plant could be very tender. If so it needs to be very gradually, over a week to ten days, introduced to direct sunlight and wind.