cucumber plants dying?? help!

**Zenithtb** · 10-05-2013, 11:14 PM

To me, the plants look fine. More light? More Outside-ness?

No idea - my sympathies as my 5 posh ones got nommed my slugs

**esbo** · 10-05-2013, 11:27 PM

The one on the left looks rather sad, rather 'laid back' shall we say, but the one on the right looks OK apart from the leave curl. They look healthy in colour, I would put some more compost in to support
the lazy one. Are they indoors? Plenty of light?

Some of mine look fine, but the ones I put outside (under a cloche) look a bit sick and yellow, but they might be courgettes

**SarzWix** · 11-05-2013, 03:15 AM

Too wet, perhaps combined with being too cold? Where are you keeping them? What variety are they?

**rustylady** · 11-05-2013, 06:37 AM

It's flopped because the leaves are too heavy for the stem. Not enough light is making the stem grow long to try and get to what light is available. Other than that they look fine.

**chefgage** · 11-05-2013, 08:32 AM

I seem to find with cucumber plants they are fine one minute and at death door the next. Looked in on my cucumber plants in the greenhouse one night and saw they needed a water. Next morning they looked a bit wilted, looked five mins later and they looked like they had not been watered for a month!

They were all flopped over and withered. I quickly gave them another water and brought them inside and they recovered over the next couple of hours.

So my advice (of which is certainly not of the gardening guru type) is to water them consistently as i seem to find a good soak every now and them does them no favours. Also mine do better when kept inside untill they look like this

Then slowly take them outside in a sunny spot each day for a few hours to get them used to being outside (if the their the outside variety of course). I make sure i water them every couple/few days untill they are quite established i.e a couple of foot high then they seem to be more forgiving.

Oh dear, just looked at that picture and really noticed all the weeds on the patio in the background, well thats todays job then

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**Irish-Veg** · 11-05-2013, 09:27 AM

Hmm well they are an outdoor organic variety of Marketmore (not the ones free in the mag but they are just germinating now so glad I might need them!)

They are indoors, in a pop up type greenhouse, right against my French doors, all the rest of the plants (toms/squash/peppers) seem ok.
At night, I put the curtains behind the greenhouse to stop them getting chilled?!

The other cucmbers, 2 or 3 have curled leaves now, the biggest one is fine

I'm going to harden them off soon though as soon as this storm we have atm is over!.

**rustylady** · 11-05-2013, 10:10 AM

In a greenhouse, inside the house? They surely don't need both.

**horticultural_hobbit** · 11-05-2013, 10:17 AM

Oh the drama of cukes!

Mine were brought home yesterday and are sat in the four tier blowaway. They made it through the night as I covered them with fleece. I'm feeling very precious about them, as they can keel over with the slightest change.

They are certainly big drinkers, I've certainly found that. I've been watering from below, as the stems don't like too much water. They also tend to get a bit stroppy with drastic changes in temp. Mine are sat in the 4TB to get gradually acclimatised. The flap was open til the heavens opened and a chill arrived 20 minutes ago.

Mine also started to keel over, as advised; it was the weight of the leaves. Bit of supporting compost does help.

**Irish-Veg** · 11-05-2013, 10:32 AM

Yeah I know, they probably dont but i wouldnt have space for everything on windowsills etc, and with the dogs around anyway, they would be at risk of getting knocked over on the windowsills anyway.

Im planning on putting them outside as soon as the winds die down.

For next season though, I'm investing in a proper greenhouse or polytunnel ; it will open up so many oppurtunities!

**Potstubsdustbins** · 11-05-2013, 03:23 PM

Some plants you have to murder, some plants commit suicide. Unfortunately cumbers fall into the last catagory, right as nine pence one day on their way out the next.

As others have said I would pot them on 'deep' just like toms, but water from the bottom to avoid stem rot and give them as much light as possible. Its the time of year when they start to take off, they will want to be 5ft high in about a month.

Potty

**Chef_uk** · 11-05-2013, 06:01 PM

First time growing these myself and I too noticed the sudden wilt. But like others said, a bit more water and they perked right up. I'm thinking of planting them up in their final growbags this weekend rather than pot them on again. They all have 4-5 leaves so think its about time?

**Irish-Veg** · 11-05-2013, 08:45 PM

well I watered the plant today and made no improvment, dare I say even looks worse to me /: Maybe it could be stem rot, the stem has gone from nice and solid to flimsy almost squishy like, i was watering directly so maybe it was stem rot /: I think Ill try some epsom salts i might pick up tomorrow if its still alive.

**marchogaeth** · 12-05-2013, 08:22 AM

Originally posted by SarzWix View Post

Too wet, perhaps combined with being too cold? Where are you keeping them? What variety are they?

Originally posted by rustylady View Post

It's flopped because the leaves are too heavy for the stem. Not enough light is making the stem grow long to try and get to what light is available. Other than that they look fine.

I'm really good at killing cucumbers and I'm fairly sure I recognise these symptoms and it's what they said ^^^^^^^^^^. When they are very small they don't want wet compost, try using a spray on the soil surface until they are really established. I know this goes against all the ideas of watering from the bottom but if the water isn't being used by the plant they are sitting in what to them is a bog!

Originally posted by Irish-Veg View Post

I think Ill try some epsom salts i might pick up tomorrow if its still alive.

Careful you'll be taking it out to wash it's roots next! (My granny was really impatient with plants and resorted to this one year much to our (continued - she's been dead since 1983) amusement.

)

**SarzWix** · 12-05-2013, 08:47 AM

If you pot it up in order to support the stem, you won't need to feed it with anything, because the new compost will have plenty of nutrients. You then won't need to water much at all, because there'll be a lot of compost in the pot that the roots won't be drawing water from to begin with. My experience with cucs is that they need light and warmth. If they get warmth without enough light, they'll get drawn and leggy. If they get light without warmth, they'll rot. Very temperamental things they are. I've resorted to buying plants from the garden centre on a few occasions - still works out cheaper than buying cucumbers from the supermarket

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