Cucumber help

[Jeannine Anne]

It seems to be almost every year, I start my cukes, they look good,they get trnasplaned into the greenhouse, grow very well,then suddenly they die. I have tried different soil, different seeds, different feed and it makes no difference, everything does well except them.

I start the seed when I start my tomatoes and am wondering if they are just too early and run their course, finishing first.

Does anyone have any ideas, they don't get any visible diseases, they just seem to come to their end.

They are a greenhouse type.

XX Jeannine

[bitterwort]

Do they just suddenly wilt and die within a day or two, with no apparent issues beforehand? If so, I'd be thinking about bacterial wilt spread by cucumber beetles. Our favorite cucumber is a European burpless type that is extremely attractive to cucumber beetles, and our plants (grown outside) used to wilt and die after producing only one or two fruits--until we started making sleeves of very lightweight row cover to cover their cages until the female flowers started to bloom. We then removed the sleeves to allow pollination and managed to get a decent crop afterward (because the disease takes time to develop).

[Jeannine Anne]

We don't hsve those beetles here and thry produce loads of fruit before they go, just like if thee time was up

Originally Posted by bitterwort

Do they just suddenly wilt and die within a day or two, with no apparent issues beforehand? If so, I'd be thinking about bacterial wilt spread by cucumber beetles. Our favorite cucumber is a European burpless type that is extremely attractive to cucumber beetles, and our plants (grown outside) used to wilt and die after producing only one or two fruits--until we started making sleeves of very lightweight row cover to cover their cages until the female flowers started to bloom. We then removed the sleeves to allow pollination and managed to get a decent crop afterward (because the disease takes time to develop).

[RayR]

It's too early for cucumber beetles and the bacterial wilt that they may spread. They overwinter in the soil and emerge when temperatures are warm and you'd see them and the feeding damage they do to the leaves.
What's the soil and air temperature in the greenhouse Jeannine? Cucumber like all Corcubits I know hate cool temperatures. I don't have a greenhouse and I never start Corcubits until mid May indoors and only transplant them in the ground or containers when the threat of cold weather and frost is no longer.

If you are plagued by cucumber beetles and bacterial wilt in the summer, read and learn.
http://tomatoville.com/showthread.ph...cumber+Beetles

[Jeannine Anne]

No beetles here, they don't go out till it is warm and the glass house stays warm till October. They get to be full sized cuke plants, producing very well but only make it for about 2/3rds of a season..it is weird. Seedlings go in, , green and healthy, they grow well lush and green they produce like crazy for a few weeks then die off, This year I have only put 1 ou tthere . I will sowa another in a couple of weeks, then one more time,they seem to be healthy but short lived,

Originally Posted by RayR

It's too early for cucumber beetles and the bacterial wilt that they may spread. They overwinter in the soil and emerge when temperatures are warm and you'd see them and the feeding damage they do to the leaves.
What's the soil and air temperature in the greenhouse Jeannine? Cucumber like all Corcubits I know hate cool temperatures. I don't have a greenhouse and I never start Corcubits until mid May indoors and only transplant them in the ground or containers when the threat of cold weather and frost is no longer.

If you are plagued by cucumber beetles and bacterial wilt in the summer, read and learn.
http://tomatoville.com/showthread.ph...cumber+Beetles

[RayR]

Originally Posted by Jeannine Anne

No beetles here, they don't go out till it is warm and the glass house stays warm till October. They get to be full sized cuke plants, producing very well but only make it for about 2/3rds of a season..it is weird. Seedlings go in, , green and healthy, they grow well lush and green they produce like crazy for a few weeks then die off, This year I have only put 1 ou tthere . I will sowa another in a couple of weeks, then one more time,they seem to be healthy but short lived,

OK, I agree it's weird. Cukes will go all season for me until the weather turns cooler in the Fall. If insects aren't causing any damage, the temperatures are good, and there are no obvious disease symptoms like Powdery Mildew, Downy Mildew etc...., I don't know.
Have you ever taken any pictures of what the plants look like when they are in decline?

[Patihum]

Just like tomatoes cucumbers can be determinate or indeterminate. I would expect most greenhouse cukes would be determinate since the growers are looking for a certain harvest "window".

[b54red]

Have you tried Sweet Success. I have tried a lot of varieties of burp-less cucumbers as well as some market cucumbers and almost every year the Sweet Success out performs the others and makes for a fairly long time. One year Orient Express did better and actually lasted longer but only once.

You could try staggering your planting which will give you a longer season. I frequently set out some cucumbers in late March and then set some plants out again in late April. The earlier planted ones always start failing way before the later plants so maybe they just produce for so long before they get too tired to keep making cukes.


Bill

[ddsack]

My cucumbers peter out in the fall, but I've always assumed it was mostly due to cool nights and mildew.

But I had to go looking and found this article https://homeguides.sfgate.com/long-c...ive-58721.html So it sounds like the normal life span of cucumbers is not all that long. Jeannine - maybe yours are just normal and you need to start successive staggered batches? I start some early to set out as plants, and then plant more seeds where I think I have gaps, but have never kept track of whether the younger plants live and produce longer because they all get taken down by fall mildew anyway.

[Jeannine Anne]

I think the answer is to stagger plant them, oddly it is what I used to up to a few years ago, I think they are just dying off naturally. I can keep tomatoes in the greenhouse till late October and a few Sungold always make it to Christmas Day.

I only put 1 in there, it was Pony..I really don't need more than 1 plant for me, but I will sow a second time

Thank you all for the advice, I truly appreciate it.

[Andrey_BY]

Dear Jeannine, you can try to experiment a little bit by charging all soil from a certain area in your greenhouse and sow your cuke seeds of several varieties there directly during next week or two.

[Jeannine Anne]

Thanks . I only need one or two plants as there is really only me eating them, The one I have in the greenhouse has baby cukeson and it very healthy. Worrking on the idea that they are naturally shortlived I have some more coming up that will be ready to transplant next week I think

I have tried many different types and it always seems to be the same, so I need to give them waht they need and if they are shortlived so be it. I only ever grow the all female types.

Interesting that someone mentioned dterminate and indeterminate I didn't know that, thank you I will investigate it.

[Andrey_BY]

Determinate cukes are widely popular in our places (Earstern Europe). They are looking very promising for growing outside, early, compact, relatively more cold tolerant and you have no such a lavigne harvest like from most prolific indeterminate hybrid cukes when you even have no idea how to use and eat so many cucumbers.
There 3 types of determinate cucumber habit (with naming our popular local varieties):
1. Bushy type (wines are 40-80cm long)- e.g. Kustovoy (you know it as Bushy in USA and Canada from SSE YEarbook) has been very popular in USSR from 1980.


Thera are also Korotyshka, Mikrosha, Kustovoy Dar, Hector F1 (Dutch CV), Buyan F1, Kuznechik F1,

Malysh (wines are only 40cm long).

2. Compact long wines (something like semi-determinate tomatoes) Masha F1 (famous Seminis hybrid from Holland),

also Micron, Mizer, Vyazovets, Nadezhda, Kudesnik, Debut F1, Krepysh F1.
3. Single stemmed varieties (without side shoots) - e.g. Arshin, Artel, Malyshok F1.

We like to grow determinate cukes in old casks like that.

[Jeannine Anne]

Andrey, beautiful pictures,I had no idea about the difference. Next year I will be looking for new seeds and your advice will guide me. Thank you so much, I am extremely happy to get the pictures and info. XX Jeannine

PS. I have a few cucumber seeds from you, they came the year before my husband died and things were very difficult, and then I took a couple of years off.Your seeds never even got sown. I still have them I am going to get them out and see what they are. They are a few years old but maybe I can get them to germinate, it is not too late. May I get back to you with the names and maybe you can tell me which woud be best.

[Andrey_BY]

Jeannine, you are always welcome. Any questions. If there will be no sprout I will send you more fresh cuke seeds and some dwarf tomatoes.