So this year I planted two varieties of cucumber and one of them is growing very thick but turning yellow?
I water regularly, plenty of sun...not too much.
I feed the soil twice during the summer.
They are also hard and taste ok....maybe a bit acidic
any ideas? Pollination?
did you plant lemon cucs, they are that color normally, slightly lemon undertones
http://livingmydreamlifeonthefarm.wordpress.com/
Throw up a couple pics of the plants - one of the overall vine and one of the leaves, if you don't mind.
Cheers,
P
Thanks I will post more pics
and check that they are not the lemon ones
Garden pt1
Pt2
In a couple of these, it looks like the base of the vines are starting to yellow as well as the cukes.
If so, you have several options for issues:
- Too MUCH nitrogen (if the other variety are the same size, had the exact same amounts and types of treatment, and in the same beds or same mix, but are normal, I would be inclined to cross that off)
- Disease (not great news because it's a "ditch the plants" and will affect even follow-on fruit, so harvesting and hoping for round two isn't effective)
- Spider mites (look for itty-bitty orange specks under the leaves, or a shiny silvery sheen that's their webs)
- White flies (shake leaves, watch for teeny itty bitty pinhead greenish-white specks to fly from underneath and float around super briefly)
- If the indivdiual leaves are turning yellow all across, from the oldest working up to the youngest, but not just aging out, it's a N deficiency (but if the other variety is fine, I'm not inclined to go there)
- If the individual leaves are turning yellow slowly from the edges toward the central vein, it's magnesium (could be, even if the other variety is fine - water in some Epsom salts, harvest the cukes, and hope you have time for more)
It does not look like the leaves in the middle of the plants are the ones that are yellowing first/by themselves. If they are, I think that's iron but could be copper or cobalt.
Weird shapes with normal coloration is usually imperfect pollination. Some occurred but not sufficient because the wrong bugs did it or it was hot enough to kill some of the pollen.
There can be some nutrient overabundance and deficiency issues from that, too.
Good news: Hand pollinating cukes and melons is super ridiculous easy, but use a different paintbrush for each variety of each species.
If you decide it's pollination, you need to shake your maters to help them and plan to pollinate any other cucurbits.
Bitterness is caused by watering issues (sounds like not your problem) and from big temperature swings. Daytime swings of 20 degrees F will do it here.
Good luck, babe.
lots to think about, thank you