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by No_Such_Reality 4/20/2018, 12:59 pm
Google
What's Wrong With My Cukes?
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.


countrynaturals-
Posts : 3272
Join date : 2016-04-12
Location : Redding, CA
Re: What's Wrong With My Cukes?
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/
What say others. Fixing the problem could be complicated. Test the soil (use soil-less testing). soiltest.unmass.edu/
sanderson
Forum Moderator Certified SFG Teacher-
Posts : 15820
Join date : 2013-04-21
Age : 69
Location : Fresno CA Zone 8-9
Re: What's Wrong With My Cukes?
That's odd -- my post didn't post.
I'll try plant food and see if it makes a difference. Thanks, Sanderson.

countrynaturals-
Posts : 3272
Join date : 2016-04-12
Location : Redding, CA
Scorpio Rising-
Posts : 5840
Join date : 2015-06-12
Age : 56
Location : Ada, Ohio
Re: What's Wrong With My Cukes?
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.
Sanderson -- I had already bought this cheap dirt before I found this forum, so I'm not using MM.
countrynaturals-
Posts : 3272
Join date : 2016-04-12
Location : Redding, CA
Re: What's Wrong With My Cukes?
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.
sanderson
Forum Moderator Certified SFG Teacher-
Posts : 15820
Join date : 2013-04-21
Age : 69
Location : Fresno CA Zone 8-9
Re: What's Wrong With My Cukes?
Or for the immediate term, blood meal and bone meal have N, P, Ph, Ca in abundance.
Scorpio Rising-
Posts : 5840
Join date : 2015-06-12
Age : 56
Location : Ada, Ohio
Re: What's Wrong With My Cukes?
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.@Scorpio Rising wrote:Or for the immediate term, blood meal and bone meal have N, P, Ph, Ca in abundance.

countrynaturals-
Posts : 3272
Join date : 2016-04-12
Location : Redding, CA
Re: What's Wrong With My Cukes?
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
Forum Moderator Certified SFG Teacher-
Posts : 15820
Join date : 2013-04-21
Age : 69
Location : Fresno CA Zone 8-9
Re: What's Wrong With My Cukes?
I still amend at the end of the season with both. I never have enough compost.
Scorpio Rising-
Posts : 5840
Join date : 2015-06-12
Age : 56
Location : Ada, Ohio
Re: What's Wrong With My Cukes?
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.@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.

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.


countrynaturals-
Posts : 3272
Join date : 2016-04-12
Location : Redding, CA
Re: What's Wrong With My Cukes?
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
Forum Moderator Certified SFG Teacher-
Posts : 15820
Join date : 2013-04-21
Age : 69
Location : Fresno CA Zone 8-9
Re: What's Wrong With My Cukes?
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.@sanderson wrote:Country, Do you have a mulcher/shredder?

countrynaturals-
Posts : 3272
Join date : 2016-04-12
Location : Redding, CA
Re: What's Wrong With My Cukes?
Lol. I clicked on this thread thinking it was about cukes, but no. Lol, mulcher, chipper, shredder. 

43 years a gardener and going strong with SFG.
http://squarefoot.creatingforum.com/t3574-the-end-of-july-7-weeks-until-frost
There are certain pursuits which, if not wholly poetic and true, do at least suggest a nobler and finer relation to nature than we know. The keeping of bees, for instance. ~ Henry David Thoreau
http://squarefoot.creatingforum.com/t1306-other-gardening-books
camprn
Forum Moderator Certified SFG Teacher-
Posts : 14167
Join date : 2010-03-06
Age : 55
Location : Keene, NH, USA ~ Zone 5a
Re: What's Wrong With My Cukes?

sanderson
Forum Moderator Certified SFG Teacher-
Posts : 15820
Join date : 2013-04-21
Age : 69
Location : Fresno CA Zone 8-9
Re: What's Wrong With My Cukes?
Spider Mites?
mollyhespra-
Posts : 807
Join date : 2012-09-21
Age : 52
Location : Waaaay upstate, NH (zone 4)
Scorpio Rising-
Posts : 5840
Join date : 2015-06-12
Age : 56
Location : Ada, Ohio
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