My cucumbers are my pride and joy at the moment. I’m growing ‘Passandra’ which is an all-female variety – no fiddling about picking off male fruits – and it’s prolific. I have two cucumber plants in my greenhouse and have counted over 20 cucumbers on the way – we’ve already eaten the first one and it was utterly delicious. Cucumbers are one of those veg you never buy from a shop again once you’ve tasted the grow-your-own version. Forget watery, tasteless crunch: this is flavour, real cucumbery flavour. Mmm.
But to get back to business – the sharp-eyed will have spotted from the picture that all is not well. Though the leaves are getting gigantic – about 20cm across in some cases – they’re also turning a sickly-looking yellow. When I saw this at first I thought the worst: cucumber mosaic virus is one of the real killers and every cucumber (and courgette, and squash) grower dreads it.
The green veins are the giveaway. This is a nutrient deficiency: my cukes are going short of magnesium, poor loves. So it was off down the garden centre for some Epsom salts.
Just the name conjures up laced-up Victorian matrons and flat-capped gardeners in gaiters. I’ve only ever used this stuff on my horse before – it makes a great hoof poultice – but it turns out it’s good for cucumbers, too. You dilute it in water and use it as a foliar spray, according to the packet. Time for some greenhouse first-aid, I think.
Thanks for this informative post. You know what to do when things are not right. When I am in such a situation, I can only guess and sometimes I guess wrongly, applied the wrong remedy and murdered my own plant!
Are you sure? Which leaves are the worst affected? If it’s older, then you’re right, if it’s the younger ones, then it’s iron/manganese deficiency.
Ah VP you are as always sharp as a razor. These are indeed older leaves, which also pointed me towards the magnesium deficiency – I should have said, if these symptoms turn up on younger leaves you’re right – it’s iron or manganese that’s the problem. I have to say though that I’ve come across this deficiency (i.e. shortage of magnesium) in cucumbers before and it seems to be the common one they suffer from – never encountered a shortage of manganese before (now there’s a sentence you don’t write every day :D)
Manganese deficiency always seems to be lumped in with iron doesn’t it? Makes me wonder if the experts haven’t seen it either or whether the two deficiencies do go hand in hand.
As for being sharp as a razor, you give me much more credit than I deserve. I’ve had to do some detective work with my raspberries this week 🙂