Cukes need more frequent watering than everyone else?

[enchant]

A few days ago, we got about a day and a half of steady rain. Inches of rain. So I figured I wouldn't have to worry about watering for a while. I have a soil moisture meter, and taking a couple readings in the garden, the soil is still pretty moist. But my cukes look awful.

I plant them on mounds, and when I check the moisture at the top of a mound, it's bone dry until I get down about 4-6 inches where it's moist again. Is this why my cukes are dying? Does the water quickly drain out of the mounds? Do I need to hand water those mounds every day, even though most of the garden has plenty of moisture?

[Worth1]

How big are the plants?

I have never been a fan of planting on hills I dont know where this idea came from.
It may be from an area that stays wet all of the time.

Worth

[enchant]

Tied up, they're about a foot tall. My wife (who gardened before I started), has always told me that you have to plant them on mounds. Next year, I might wait till she's not looking till I plant the cukes.

[Worth1]

If it is a big mound then the roots aren't long enough to reach the water.

I have never planted cukes on a mound unless you consider the hill I live on a mound.

Worth

[Redbaron]

Worth is correct. Raised beds and mounds or hills are a specific type of way of dealing with specific local conditions. If you have good drainage then no need to hill cukes. But if you don't, then hill them or they will be highly susceptible to things like mildew or other fungus attacks.

For now, I recommend a heavy mulch to keep the soil moist in the root zone.

[greyghost]

Sometimes, in planting instructions on cucumber seed packets, you see
the term "plant in hills". I've read in gardening books that this means
to plant in a "group", not a hilled up mound. In my garden, cukes and squash
do better if I make a circular mound or dam around the plants that will hold water
and direct it down rather than run off the plants. They seem to get limp when
they dry out a bit. I would think if you planted them in a mound, you'd have
a hard time watering them deeply.

Last couple of years, I've planted cucumbers in an Earth box (bought some
for relatives) and they've done better than my garden cukes even-I suspect the constant moisture and fertilizer strip has made a big difference.

[Worth1]

I plant mine by seed in rows about 10 inches apart (the seeds not the row)and grow them on a tall trellis.
In the row I put down a strip of fertilizer.

Worth

[b54red]

No matter how you plant them cukes need extra water and fertilizer once they get some size and start producing. During hot days they usually will wilt at least some even when well maintained. I grow mine in raised beds so they are definitely planted on a hill or mound but I use a very thick heavy cypress mulch and still water them frequently especially on hot mornings. I also feed them weekly with Texas Tomato Food or one of the other liquid ferts that Urban Farms sells and they do great until the nematodes get them eventually. Once that happens there is no help for the wilting.

Bill

[shelleybean]

I agree with extra water for cucumbers, no matter how they are planted. When they don't get enough water, they can develop a bitter flavor, especially at the blossom end. Have you ever sliced a cucumber and it had a hollow sort of little tunnel thing running through the center? It's from lack of water or inconsistent watering. They are very thirsty plants and mulch is a very good idea to keep the moisture in the soil.

[enchant]

100% of the pickling cukes that I planted from seed perished. About 50% of the slicing cukes as well. I bought a couple flats from the local nursery and did NOT plant them on mounds, and I'm watering them more diligently. Hopefully they'll survive better. And I'll do things differently next year.

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by enchant

A few days ago, we got about a day and a half of steady rain. Inches of rain. So I figured I wouldn't have to worry about watering for a while. I have a soil moisture meter, and taking a couple readings in the garden, the soil is still pretty moist. But my cukes look awful.

I plant them on mounds, and when I check the moisture at the top of a mound, it's bone dry until I get down about 4-6 inches where it's moist again. Is this why my cukes are dying? Does the water quickly drain out of the mounds? Do I need to hand water those mounds every day, even though most of the garden has plenty of moisture?

Worth asked where the idea came from about growing in mounds and how big your plants were now. So first I'll answer Worth and long ago and far away seed quality was not what it is now and cukes and squash were grown in hills, which is what they are really called, to get the seeds off the cold soil where they didn't germinate well at all.

And still today one sees directions saying to grow in hills. Well I remember a neighbor lady, a new gardener who lived near our farmhouse when I moved back East in 1982 showing me her garden and I kid you not, she had planted cukes and squash in HILLS that tapered and were at least two feet high. What could I say, well plenty, but I didn't.

So, how old are your cuke plants now? have they started to vine? If just short vines I'd get them off the hills and into the level soil ASAP. When I grew cukes I'd start them in 4 inch pots, sow 4 seeds around the inner periphery and one in the middle. When it came to transplanting them I'd leave the three best plants in the pot, remove the other two, knock out the 3 and plant them as a clump and then cover the row with fabric cloth so that no striped or spotted cuke beetles could get to them, but when they started to blossom, take off the cover so pollination could occur.

And doing it that way even if the beetles got to them I could get a good set of fruits that would mature before the plants went down with the wilts.

Carolyn

[enchant]

Originally Posted by carolyn137

So, how old are your cuke plants now? have they started to vine?

Well, all the pickling cukes are dead and gone. The slicing cukes that survived are about a foot tall. These "hills" that I created aren't very tall at all. Like maybe 3" above the rest of the garden.

[GreenFarmer]

cukes love moist soil

[clkeiper]

Start again and put 3 or 4 seeds in a hole. Water them in and cover the plant with a row cover, cheese cloth an old sheet... anything, one to keep the soil moist and two to keep the birds and insects from the seed or plants. You still have plenty of time to start new ones.

[Worth1]

I did a quick web search and found many takes on planting on hills.

The most common one was to plant seeds in groups not on an actual hill.
The next was a hill had a flat top and a mound had a round top.
Some people said it was to help warm the soil this was the one with the flat top.
One was to keep plants out of the water.
And so on.
No wonder people are confused.


This is my life long experience in Texas and other places.
Hill/Mounds would dry out too fast and I would be watering them all of the time even if surrounded by damp soil.
When it rained the soil would wash off the mounds and leave to seeds exposed.

Through my laziness I discovered the best results for my environment was to plant in rows slightly sunken.
Then as the plants grew mound up a dike on both sides about 18 inches apart and let water run down the trench.
For some reason people move here and bring some very bad practices with them.
For the most part you cant talk them out of it and blame it on Texas.
Then they look at me and say I dont know how you do it.
I tell them that I have told them how and their reply is that isn't the way you are supposed to do it.
I remember we used to put huge dikes about 8 inches high and 6 feet across around all of the "groups" of melons and fill them with water.
It worked great.
Worth