Dismal year for cucumbers

So this year in SoCal, I've had an absolutely dismal year for growing cucumbers. I started a bit late and then ran straight into the heat wave. My few cukes are a bit stunted, the fruit tends to be very seedy and they go to seed and turn yellow exceedingly fast.

My improved telegraph cukes are are even seedy. The Long Anglais ones are yellow seed bombs.

My potatoes are toast. The heat is dusting them off before they bloom.

The only thing that is doing marginally okay is the watermelon.

I had pretty much the same behavior last year in mid-late August so I'm thinking this year's challenges are due to the surprising and early heat we've had.

Any other SoCalers with similar thoughts?

We got quite a few cucumbers this time. The powdery mildew got us big time, but we used some stuff someone on here recommended and they're trying to take off again. Our soil is about 8" deep in that bed, and I think that's what is helping us...and we are having to water just about every other day, if not every day. The stuff in our 6" beds got toasted too if we missed watering...we already pulled that out. Is you soil good and moist? Are you having the mildew probs?

Very horrible year for cucumbers as well. Next year I'm going to wait until late April to plant instead of early April. I think I planted them too early and it ruined them.

I am so glad to be reading this thread. Last year I tried cucumbers three times and different varieties. Perhaps I won't give up on them. Avoided them this year because of the experience last year. Perhaps when I harvest the last of the cabbage I will give it a try.

Have you tried growing okra, it loves heat. I know this wont help with the cukes.

Okra is 1/square, correct?

Yes, Sanderson okra is one per square. And like Camp said it loves heat. I grew Clemson Spineless last year and it basically just set there and didn't do anything until the temps really got up there. It looked healthy just wasn't growing much at all then end of June/first of July it started growing and it grew fast and produced lots of yummy okra. I doubled the number of plants this year can't wait for some fresh okra.

I'm doing cukes this year for the first time so will have to wait and see how it goes. A friend of mine does good with hers here though so here's hoping all goes well for me. I used starts since I was late getting most of my garden in the ground this year; my pickling cucumbers transplanted well with no problems, didn't lose any of them, but my slicing cukes not so much lost all but two. I had some starts left so I replaced with what I had and they did much better all of them made it but they already had true leaves on them where the first planting of them didn't so in the future if I transplant cukes instead of direct seed I will wait til they have their true leaves on first. Should have known but just didn't think about it at the time of the first planting I was just trying to get everything in the garden.

Oh...  Oops...  I've got 2 okra/square.  I guess we'll see what happens...

 

My cucumbers are doing better this year. It was either planting too early or bad seeds/variety last year. Hopefully they keep going strong.

AtlantaMarie wrote:Oh...  Oops...  I've got 2 okra/square.  I guess we'll see what happens...

 

Last year I planted Okra one per square, except in a couple of squares just to see how it worked.  I could see no difference in quality/quantity between 1 or 2 per square.

I didn't learn until last year that leaving the cucumbers on the vine too long, or having them exposed to too much heat for too long, made them seedy.

I am growing slicing, Armenian, and lemon cucumbers. Question: if I pick the lemon cucumbers early enough that they don't get seedy, they won't be yellow yet. Cucumbers don't last too long when picked, either. But will leaving them out, once picked, turn them yellow?

yolos wrote:

AtlantaMarie wrote:Oh...  Oops...  I've got 2 okra/square.  I guess we'll see what happens...

 

Last year I planted Okra one per square, except in a couple of squares just to see how it worked.  I could see no difference in quality/quantity between 1 or 2 per square.

+1 You should be ok. I had some that I didn't separate when I transplanted mine last year and they did fine.

I, too, am having a very bad year for cukes. I have always planted "Market More" and they have always been winners for me. It seems to me this summer is cooler than other summers, so I'm not understanding the temperature issue. Others here are saying it's been too hot.

I have an epidemic of Argentinian ants living in my raised beds and they have completely covered the underside of the cucumber leaves with black aphids. I believe that's been the reason for most of my problems this year.

I sprayed Safer's insecticidal soap on them several times, also knocked them off with jet sprays of water before that but they came right back. I bought green lacewing eggs and the ants destroyed them. Earlier in the year I bought ladybugs because the aphids were on my leeks. The ants killed them quickly.

The Ant Guy in Temecula said this is the worst year he has seen for ants.

I also use AntPro baits and Gourmet Ant Food but the ants still come. They've bothered me ever since I started gardening 4 summers ago. Then they only killed my corn (with their aphids).

I did a home NPK test and found the soil deficient in N and P. I read somewhere that liquid fertilizer works a lot quicker in a pinch, and I was told by L&N (now under a new name--Crop Production) to try fish emulsion for the N (you mix it with water) and seaweed as a foliar spray since I had some blossom drop on my squash. 

But the seaweed is not meant for organic gardening and the warning on the bottle says it has ingredients known to cause cancer. So I used the fish emulsion but not the seaweed.

For the P, I didn't have any liquid alternative so I worked some bone meal into all the soil.

I also put some shade cloth over the cukes. The leaves are looking better and I have a few 1 1/2 inch cukes now. We'll see where they go. I'm not holding my breath!

Anyone have any ideas?    

JTuck, Regarding ants, at least they are Argentine and don't bite. But, where ever there aphids, they will be there. There are several prior Topics on ants. Just type ants in the search box.

jtuck2 wrote:I, too, am having a very bad year for cukes. I have always planted "Market More" and they have always been winners for me. It seems to me this summer is cooler than other summers, so I'm not understanding the temperature issue. Others here are saying it's been too hot.

I have an epidemic of Argentinian ants living in my raised beds and they have completely covered the underside of the cucumber leaves with black aphids. I believe that's been the reason for most of my problems this year.

I sprayed Safer's insecticidal soap on them several times, also knocked them off with jet sprays of water before that but they came right back. I bought green lacewing eggs and the ants destroyed them. Earlier in the year I bought ladybugs because the aphids were on my leeks. The ants killed them quickly.

The Ant Guy in Temecula said this is the worst year he has seen for ants.

I also use AntPro baits and Gourmet Ant Food but the ants still come. They've bothered me ever since I started gardening 4 summers ago. Then they only killed my corn (with their aphids).

I did a home NPK test and found the soil deficient in N and P. I read somewhere that liquid fertilizer works a lot quicker in a pinch, and I was told by L&N (now under a new name--Crop Production) to try fish emulsion for the N (you mix it with water) and seaweed as a foliar spray since I had some blossom drop on my squash. 

But the seaweed is not meant for organic gardening and the warning on the bottle says it has ingredients known to cause cancer. So I used the fish emulsion but not the seaweed.

For the P, I didn't have any liquid alternative so I worked some bone meal into all the soil.

I also put some shade cloth over the cukes. The leaves are looking better and I have a few 1 1/2 inch cukes now. We'll see where they go. I'm not holding my breath!

Anyone have any ideas?    

Jtuck2, I've discovered I have the same ants. I've been trying to get rid of them all summer and they keep building their mounds. It seems typical ant bait doesn't end them. They are good at multiplying as they travel with multiple queens. When the weather dries up, I'm going to put out a few plates with peanut butter mixed a little corn meal and borax. Apparently, they like carbs and protein. 

http://www.pest-advice.com/2010/01/argentine-ants.html

Best,
GardenGroupie

this may be helpful. It may cross over.

ant control after rain

http://www.dirtdoctor.com/Ant-Control-After-Rain_vq3631.htm

fire ant control

ant-fire

has55 wrote:this may be helpful. It may cross over.

ant control after rain

http://www.dirtdoctor.com/Ant-Control-After-Rain_vq3631.htm

fire ant control

ant-fire

OMG has55, that is one scary looking ant mound. Good grief.  

jtuck2 wrote:I, too, am having a very bad year for cukes. I have always planted "Market More" and they have always been winners for me. It seems to me this summer is cooler than other summers, so I'm not understanding the temperature issue. Others here are saying it's been too hot.

I have an epidemic of Argentinian ants living in my raised beds and they have completely covered the underside of the cucumber leaves with black aphids. I believe that's been the reason for most of my problems this year.

I sprayed Safer's insecticidal soap on them several times, also knocked them off with jet sprays of water before that but they came right back. I bought green lacewing eggs and the ants destroyed them. Earlier in the year I bought ladybugs because the aphids were on my leeks. The ants killed them quickly.

The Ant Guy in Temecula said this is the worst year he has seen for ants.

I also use AntPro baits and Gourmet Ant Food but the ants still come. They've bothered me ever since I started gardening 4 summers ago. Then they only killed my corn (with their aphids).

I did a home NPK test and found the soil deficient in N and P. I read somewhere that liquid fertilizer works a lot quicker in a pinch, and I was told by L&N (now under a new name--Crop Production) to try fish emulsion for the N (you mix it with water) and seaweed as a foliar spray since I had some blossom drop on my squash. 

But the seaweed is not meant for organic gardening and the warning on the bottle says it has ingredients known to cause cancer. So I used the fish emulsion but not the seaweed.

For the P, I didn't have any liquid alternative so I worked some bone meal into all the soil.

I also put some shade cloth over the cukes. The leaves are looking better and I have a few 1 1/2 inch cukes now. We'll see where they go. I'm not holding my breath!

Anyone have any ideas?    

jtuck2 - I agree. BAD this year. I even found an ant colony in one of my raised SFGs. (its ~ 3feet off the ground). Hadn't see that before. I had FANTASTIC luck with someone's suggestion of placing baking soda around the perimeter. I know that doesn't help large areas, but I did try it also around the wood perimeter of a couple of my boxes on the ground. I did this about a week ago and by the next AM all ants were gone from those boxes. AND, the backing soda didn't rinse off (disappear) as easily as I'd worried it would. Gets a bit clumpy and sticks. Which reminds me, I'm going to try this around the cat food dish that is on my balcony!