Yellowing Cucumber Leaves

[bjblackmore]

Hi,

I'm having some issues with my cucumber plants.

For some reason, every year, they reach about 1ft in height, then the leaves go yellow, then crispy, and the whole plant eventually dies.

The plant is in a greenhouse, at the start of the year I dug in 2 bags of John Innes mature. I water ever other day, feed with miracle grow vegetable food weekly. I'm not sure what the issue is? Too much water? Too much sun? Having looked at a few other sites on 'cucumber wilt' some suggest it's caused by a bacteria from a 'stripped cucumber beetle', but in not sure those are in the UK? And I've not seen any sign of bugs on the leaves when checking.

I've even done a soil Ph test, which shows a Ph of about 7.5. Is this too alkaline? Should I add some form of sulfur to lower the Ph to 6.5 ish?

Is this plant salvageable? Or is it too far gone?

[burnie]

I'm no expert, but is it Verticillium Wilt? the book says keep air moist and warm and do not over water. Young plants in cold wet conditions are mostly at risk so says my book

[Baldy]

Whilst I can't say what the cause is, I suspect you have little to no chance saving it. Cukes are temperamental at best. This is not at best.

You could try to keep it going I suppose but my advice is to give it up as a bad job.

[Jungle Jane]

Leaves can go white in direct sun when they’re young/if it wasn’t hardened off,the new growth looks like it’s coming through ok it might be alright,if you cut a couple of white leaves off the plant should keep growing more leaves.

[nickdub]

I agree with Jane, looks like sun scorch to me. Top looks to be growing fine so I think the plant will grow away no problem. The plants are more likely to be damaged by bright sunlight when they are small. As long as you can keep it somewhere warm and damp with reasonable light levels you should get a crop I reckon.

[bjblackmore]

Thanks for the replies. I'm hoping it's not Verticillium Wilt, reading up on that says it's impossible to get rid of, and you should grass over the area for up to 15 years! Would rather not do that! If it is that, I guess I could remove the soil at the end of the season, and replace it!

Tomato plants and chilli plants seem to grow ok, in fact the tomato plants are coming up like weeds, due to the number of dropped tomatoes from last year which are now germinating. I also have an avocado plant, which is about 1m high so far, and seems ok.

Last year they were planted at the front of the greenhouse, and didn't even reach 6 inches before wilting and going crispy. I assumed they were getting too much sun, so planted them at the back this year, so it's not in direct sun light all day.

I did plant some sweetheart cabbages at the front, in place of the cucumbers this year, and they only lasted 2 weeks before wilting, so maybe there is some issue with the soil.

Annoyingly, 4 years ago, I successfully grew 2 cucumber plants, in that same position, both reaching 1.5m, and giving 20+ foot long cucumbers. But since then I've never been able to reproduce that success. As I said, I dug in manure and fertilizer every winter, to replace any nutrients, but doesn't seem to have helped.

[veggiechicken]

The bottom leaves on my cucumber are white-ish too but I'm not worried about them. I'll cut them off soon. I grow mine in open bottomed pots resting on a shallow compost bed in the GH. I find I can control the watering/feeding more easily that way. The pots are filled with new MPC each year.

[Potstubsdustbins]

As vert wilt also affects tomatoes I think we can rule that out.

[bjblackmore]

Just an update on this topic. I decided to try to cover the cucumber with a cloche, and see what happened, and that seems to have helped. There's a lot of new, green growth up the main stem, and the top leaves are no longer going yellow and crispy. Seems these cucumbers don't like direct sunlight!

[HoneyChild]

I wish I'd done more to protect my cucumbers. I had 3 beautiful plants that were producing 2-3 good sized cucumbers and now they're all yellow, crispy and got red spider mite. Hoping that the dull weather we've got now will help a little.

[fon]

Red spider mite will take over very quickly,

Keep spraying the leaves with water, the plants love it and the spiders hate it,

Fon

[bjblackmore]

Another update

The cucumber plant that I covered with a cloche has continued to improve, getting more, greener leaves, and even has a 6 inch fruit growing on it! Compared to the plant which I didn't cover, which has continued to wilt, with the leaves going crispy.

Next year, I'll definitely be covering the young plants, as soon as they are planted out, even if the information on the tags say they like direct sunlight!