Cucumbers - what am I doing wrong?

[bjblackmore]

Hi,

I've brought 4 cucumber plants (Female F1) in the past 3 weeks from our local garden center. The first 2, 3 weeks ago, I put in a trough, in our greenhouse, after 2 week, 1 of the plants died, looking as if it had rotted at the base of the stem - even though I only watered it once after planting, and the soil was just moist, not water logged. So this Saturday just gone I got another 2 plants. I left them in their plastic pots, gave them a little water, as the soil was already damp, and put them in our greenhouse. Now for some reason, the leaves on these 2 plants have turned crispy (see pics attached).

The little plastic infomation stick says to keep soil moist, and place in a sunny warm greenhouse. Which is what I've done! I've made sure our greenhouse temperature is kept between 25 - 30 during the day. At night I bring the plants in and place them in our kitchen window sill, as the temperature has dropped to about 5 degrees some nights!

Can anyone tell me what I'm doing wrong?

Thanks

Ben

[shirlthegirl43]

Are they in direct sunlight early in the morning? Sometimes there can be condensation on the leaves which will then cause scorching if in direct sun. Other than that, I have no idea sorry.

[bevanbawb]

It might be that the conditions they have been growing in at the garden centre weren't the best but the plants had adapted to it.

I often see plants on racks in garden centres that don't get enough sun and are over/under watered and have clearly been brought up under cover, then when they are brought home and put outside or in strong sun they show signs of stress at the change.

Maybe pamper them a bit first by keeping them indoors initially and gradually move them to their final positions once they've got used to their new home.

[bjblackmore]

Thanks for the replies.

As I've been keeping them in at night, there hasn't been any condensation on the leaves, however, they have possibly been in direct sunlight during the day, depending on the sun location as it moves around the greenhouse.

I'll keep them in the kitchen window for the next week, which only gets sunlight from about 5pm - 7pm, which shouldn't be so strong! Hopefully they will improve - they do both have a small new leaf growing out the top, so hopefully this will grow healthier!

Ben

[falkon]

seems to me that they are no able to cop with the night temperatures in the GH yet...bring them indoors in night..

[COMPOST CORNER]

Window sills can be very cold at night, especially if behind a curtain.

[FionaH]

Mine died too, I kill them every year! Apparently they like to be quite dry and I over water them..........

[Flobalob]

Looks very much like overwatered. I let mine go almost dry before dunking them for ten minutes in an inch of water.
The plants leaves curl downwards when thirsty.

[Flobalob]

Sorry double posted.

[SarzWix]

Cucumbers really prefer to be shady rather than in full sun. If you drape some shade netting, or an old net curtain over the greenhouse they'll be much happier, and the leaves won't go papery like that.
The stem rotting through is most likely through too much water though as the others have said. Only water them in the morning, so that they aren't sitting in wet compost overnight.

Good luck with the next lot