Cucumber plant is drying

[Arefae]

HI, my cucumber plant was doing well and flowering and fruits started coming up. Leaves at the bottom started to have spots, drying at the edge and turned yellow. Slowly it started spreading and the entire plant is drying up. Even tiny cucumbers started turning yellow and dry. Ther is only one fruit in the plant. I have attached picture. Ther has been weather variations in the place I'm living. Please help me figure out what the problem is and how I can fix it

[PaulF]

It looks like you have the plant in a container. If this is so, are you doing the following: watering when the soil dries out, have holes in the bottom of the container so the water does not sit in the container and drown the plant, use a water soluble fertilizer every week to ten days to replace the nutrients flushed out by watering (hint: use a low nitrogen fertilizer at this stage to encourage blossom and fruit growth. should be something like 8-15-15), have the container so it gets 6 to 8 hours of sunlight per day (you don't state where you are or the growing conditions, be sure the plant is not getting too much direct sunshine during the hottest part of the day. you may be baking the plant. provide shade during the hottest times) Is the plant outside so it can be pollenated; if it is inside you will have to pollenate it by hand (two plants would be better, but it is too late for that now).

Right now that is all I can come up with, but I am sure others will make more suggestions. More information is always helpful; location, where the plant is being grown, weather conditions how big is the pot, what soil you used, how you care for the plant, etc.

[gumbo2176]

Like Paul mentioned in his last part of his reply, it is always very helpful to know where you are located. I live in New Orleans and can't even think of growing cucumbers right now due to weather conditions not being cucumber friendly. We had our only frost of the year just last night, but my cucumber plants started fading a couple months ago as the weather cooled.

Cucumbers tend to like warm to very warm conditions and do best for me in the late spring early summer months and again in late summer to early fall. The will fade a bit in our 'dog days' of summer in July and August, but do survive to come back when the heat tapers off a bit.

[Arefae]

Hi Paul. Thank u so much for the information. I'm relatively new to gardening and this is my first cucumber plant. I live in saudi arabia. The plant is in my balcony. And pot is about 12 inches deep and wide with holes. I used potting soil. Yes I water it wen the soil dries up. Initially I bought solid organic fertilizer. I found another liquid fertilizer ( wuxal brand) 10-10-7.5. As of now climate High of 23°C & low of 10°C. However it gets very hot sometimes even during winter. Probably I should not let the plant sit in direct sunligt wen it's too hot.

[applestar]

Maybe you could put up a little veil/sun shade against the hottest sun. I think the reflected heat from the wall could be detrimental also. I think you may need to water a little more thoroughly when you water -- cucumbers love good soaking. It might also help to have a wicking water tender -- bury (or tuck in one of the drainage holes) one end of twisted fabric or rope and trail the other end in a jug of water.

Another method is to bury an unglazed clay jug or pot with lid and keep it filled with water so the water seeps/is wicked out to the soil. Is it stereotyping of me (Am I wrong) to think you would have ready access to such a container in Saudi Arabia?

[Arefae]

Hi gumbo2176. Thanks for the info. I live in saudi. The summers here are extremely hot reaching 50°C. Will plants survive that much heat? I started planting cucumbers in fall. But right now it does get very cold at night with good amount of dew. I considered the day time temperature and started growing them here. There is good amount of such light in the day time. Like you said may be I should try to plant them early spring.

[Arefae]

Hi applestar. Thank u for the ideas. I'm planning to put up a sun shade. I will try the ideas u gave. I probably have to search in a village here to find that clay pot.

[gumbo2176]

Hi gumbo2176. Thanks for the info. I live in saudi. The summers here are extremely hot reaching 50°C. Will plants survive that much heat? I started planting cucumbers in fall. But right now it does get very cold at night with good amount of dew. I considered the day time temperature and started growing them here. There is good amount of such light in the day time. Like you said may be I should try to plant them early spring.

50C is the equivalent of 122F, so no, cucumbers would not survive that much heat. From my experience, they start struggling when my temperatures get in the upper 90F, or 36+C temperatures. They fade during the heat of the day and will perk back up at night and during these times they need a lot of water to stay alive. Where I live, there's also high humidity, so that can also cause fungal issues in summer months. I'm not sure how humid your weather is, but in the summer months it is not uncommon for our days to start at 80 degrees F and have 80+% humidity and as the daily temperatures climb into the mid 90's, the humidity drops to the 40-50% level.

[imafan26]

Cucumbers did fine even in 90 degree weather as long as they get adequate water. They don't like to be particularly cold. Mine gets yellow like that usually when there are insects sucking on the leaves or they get mildew from the humidity. What do the undersides of the leaves look like?

Your pot looks big enough but the soil looks like it has a lot of compost in it and cucumbers are heavy feeders. A heavy compost soil will suck up nitrogen causing leaves to yellow from the bottom up and the plant to be generally stunted as well as raise the pH a bit. What kind of soil are you using?

Cucumbers did not do that well for me in pots less than 5 gallons, but in warm climates small pots dry out too fast so SIP containers work really well for plants like cucumbers and tomatoes that like even moisture. The soil needs to be free draining and that is why I don't put more than a handful or two of vermicompost in a 5 gallon mix of potting soil. I have not had good results using other composts (too alkaline) or manures (plants died) in potting mixes. If you are going to be organic, then you will need to feed the cucumbers with fish emulsion every week. I would get the plant on a trellis and away from the wall. You need good air circulation to keep the pests away and if the sun hits the wall it will reflect heat back on to the plant from both the wall and the concrete floor. It would be better if the pot was actually sitting on the ground in a more open space. If you are worried about heat you can put it in a place that will get some afternoon sun protection.
http://www.gardening.cornell.edu/homega ... ef65b.html

[jal_ut]

I don't know that you can be successful growing cukes in a pot. They do best planted out in the ground in Springtime after all danger of frost is past. They won't usually survive frost. Dad used to like to put 5 seeds in a bunch about every 5 feet in a row. The cukes would come up and go out like the spokes of a wheel and make a nice clump. Of course the clumps would grow over and touch other so you had a row of cucumber vines. I like to just go poke a seed in about every 8 inches in the row and stand back. Anyway, outdoors in good fertile soil and full sun is where to plant cucumbers.

Just for kicks I planted one cucumber seed in a pot and set in the window. I am giggling as it looks just like yours. Spindly and poor color with some spotchy leaves. Well I had to grow something. Have fun!

[jal_ut]

Oh, BTW, cucumbers and other squashes will often send down more roots where the vines touch the ground at the leaf nodes. You can encourage this to happen by bringing up a little soil and cover the leaf node an inch or so. In pots, you could do this with another pot. Just something to play with........

Take a look at this:

http://soilandhealth.org/wp-content/upl ... 7ch29.html

[imafan26]

Mine usually looks like that when there are a lot of thrips and mites around. They suck the juices out of the plant and the edges turn brown. Usually mine are not small unless I kept them in a small pot too long. Cucumbers like the heat but not the cold. They also need to have a moist but not soggy soil.