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My cucumber and (recently) my zucchini plants have starting going downhill. They were doing so good, but have been turning yellow for the past month or so. I live in the orlando area. I know I got started planting a little bit late (My husband and I recently moved here and I got them in the ground as quickly as I could). Currently we are in hurricaine season, so we get a lot of rain. I have been fertilizing them about every 4 weeks. I also tried an epsom salt/magnesium bath that was suggested.
I did notice recently with the cucumbers that one vine is latching onto my green beans and growing upwards. That stalk seems to be doing great... maybe they need to be up, off the ground?
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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My cucumbers are close to 5' tall, I tie them onto stakes. It's not good for the leaves to be lying on the wet soil. Both can take heat, yellowing can be lack of nutrition or overwatering, especially if it's raining a lot and your soil doesn't drain well. If you continue to get heavy rains you might try a clear plastic cover over them. If nutritional, the epsom salts my help but also try compost tea. I like to plant mine in Garner & Bloome Harvest Supreme soil, and never have to worry about fertilizing.
Are they producing anyway? My lemon cukes are producing blossoms that are turning into teensy little lemon cukes like mad. I've never seen these plants with so many blooms. And the leaves look yellowish on mine, too. They have whiteflies, which are about impossible to get rid of, but I've had whiteflies before on tomatoes, and again, it didn't keep the plants from producing lots of great tomatoes. I don't even see that many whiteflies, so I'm wondering if it's possibly the heat here. I've never grown them somewhere so hot before. The cukes on my plants are all under the leaves pretty much, which I think helps protect them from the sun and heat, though.
I've got my lemon cukes winding around on themselves. No cages, but I'm also limited in space, as I have them in plastic pots on our community patio (senior apt bldg) and i cant' let them take over the patio :-)
At any rate, if they are producing even though they're a tad yellow, you might want to just add fertilizer (if you haven't over-fertilized them), or just leave them be. Doesn't really matter what they look like, if they give you the veggies you want. I'm just going to leave mine be, even though they aren't real pretty to look at.
No, they are not producing. Lots of flowers, but no cucs.
Do you see any bees or other pollinators on or near the plants to pollinate them? If not, you may have to hand pollinate in order to get cukes, assuming you already have female flowers.
When did you do the epsom salt/magnesium bath? What are you using as fertilizer?
I already hand pollinate my (several in the history of this year's garden) female flowers. There are hardly any bees anymore. But most days there are no female flowers to pollinate, only male. Why? Does anybody know?
Are they producing anyway? My lemon cukes are producing blossoms that are turning into teensy little lemon cukes like mad. I've never seen these plants with so many blooms. And the leaves look yellowish on mine, too. They have whiteflies, which are about impossible to get rid of, but I've had whiteflies before on tomatoes, and again, it didn't keep the plants from producing lots of great tomatoes. I don't even see that many whiteflies, so I'm wondering if it's possibly the heat here. I've never grown them somewhere so hot before. The cukes on my plants are all under the leaves pretty much, which I think helps protect them from the sun and heat, though.
I've got my lemon cukes winding around on themselves. No cages, but I'm also limited in space, as I have them in plastic pots on our community patio (senior apt bldg) and i cant' let them take over the patio :-)
At any rate, if they are producing even though they're a tad yellow, you might want to just add fertilizer (if you haven't over-fertilized them), or just leave them be. Doesn't really matter what they look like, if they give you the veggies you want. I'm just going to leave mine be, even though they aren't real pretty to look at.
Like yours I have never seen as many cukes as we have this year. I do not tie mine up, but they find their own way to stay off the ground most of the time. They attach themselves to the fence or in some cases to the tomato stakes. And some are on the ground, I just watch out for them and pick as quickly as I can.
As for heat, I think the reason we are having such good luck, is the lack of heat this year. We have only had a couple of days hit 90 and are expecting another cool front tomorrow. Before now the best cukes we ever had was in the D.C. area, it was humid but again, the temps were not all that high as a rule.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
44,551 posts, read 81,085,957 times
Reputation: 57744
Quote:
Originally Posted by leftwinghillbilly
All my squash have only male flowers. Whats going on here?
This is why you need many plants, I have 10. Sometimes you get all male, then all female. If the timing is bad you will never get anything from them. With mine in a greenhouse I am hand pollinating every morning and afternoon with a soft artists brush and we have been eating squash for over a week now.
Okay, dumb question here, I have never learned the difference between male and female flowers. Will the male flowers produce if they get pollinated? Or are you just SOL if all you have are male flowers?
Oh, and as far as keeping cukes or whatever off the ground, seedless straw works great. Makes a good mulch, too.
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