What's Wrong With My Cukes?

I've searched on Google and can't find any images that look like this. They don't seem to be dying but they aren't growing or producing very fast.

At first blush it looks like chlorosis or iron deficiency, maybe magnesium deficiency, or higher pH. Since the Mel's Mix is new, could it be the ingredients were off? I know my MM gets better each year.

What say others. Fixing the problem could be complicated. Test the soil (use soil-less testing). soiltest.unmass.edu/

That's odd -- my post didn't post.  I'll try plant food and see if it makes a difference. Thanks, Sanderson.

Thanks, Scorpio. Looks like a potassium deficiency. We're going to Home Depot tomorrow. Maybe they'll have something.

Sanderson -- I had already bought this cheap dirt before I found this forum, so I'm not using MM.

Can you move aside the wood chips and add some bagged compost? Bagged chicken or cow manure, Ecoscraps compost, Whole Foods veggie based. Before you put the chips back, sprinkle a thin layer of manure compost. Wood likes to tie up nitrogen.

@Scorpio Rising wrote:Or for the immediate term, blood meal and bone meal have N, P, Ph, Ca in abundance.  

I think I'll get them both. My store-bought soil is yukky and my compost almost non-existent, so I'm obviously gonna need some help this year. A good compost system is on Hubby's to-do list, but not near the top, unfortunately.

I used Kellogg's for the compost part of my original Mel's Mix in 2013. I ended up using (drat, old age, the green powder stuff, Miracle Grow?) to supplement while I frantically started the first of many compost piles. Do what ever you can for this first year. You have a nice spread so I hope hubby can build you a 3-compartment compost bin so you can make homemade compost.

@sanderson wrote:I used Kellogg's for the compost part of my original Mel's Mix in 2013.    I ended up using (drat, old age, the green powder stuff, Miracle Grow?) to supplement while I frantically started the first of many compost piles.  Do what ever you can for this first year.  You have a nice spread so I hope hubby can build you a 3-compartment compost bin so you can make homemade compost.

Yup, that's where I am right now. I have an almost unlimited supply of Miracle Grow, thanks to donations to daughter's charity. I've never used it on veggies, but these are desperate times. 

I bought the cheapest dirt I could find for these beds, then today I had to spend $22 on amendments. So much for trying to save money. 

We do compost everything, but my bin is just one of those dog fence panel things. It's only about 2' on each side, so nothing heats up. Also, with the drought these past 3 years, I never had enough green stuff and I could never water it, so my compost is really just half-digested mulch.   The good news is that the horse manure is all out in the back pasture and this year we can water, so when I finally do get my regulation bins, I'll have plenty of good stuff to get started with. (We also have rabbit and chicken poop to add to the mix.)

Country, Do you have a mulcher/shredder? Dry leaves, cheap bale of bedding straw or alfalfa hay for a bit more. Plus Starbucks. Horse pooh. Take 5-gallon buckets to a farmer market during the summer. I like the evening ones because the produce wilts in the hot evenings so I can take home lots of culls. Regarding water, the most water is used right as you build it. The finished compost, once placed in the beds, holds and conserves water. That's my rationale and I'm sticking to it.

@sanderson wrote:Country,  Do you have a mulcher/shredder? 

We bought one, then took it back for a refund. Our yard debris just laughed at it. I have a real job ahead of me, pulling the twigs and branches out of the huge mulch piles that were dumped here for us when they cut down the dead trees -- those went through a professional mulcher/shredder and they're still full of large chunks of stuff. The biggest pieces will go into the snag pile for the little critters and wild birds (where the cats can't get them). The rest will go to mulch paths, trees, & containers, and whatever's left will become real compost. I'm getting tired just thinking about it.

Thanks for the reminder, Camp