cucumbers, tomatoes
By sandyrusty
@sandyrusty (278)
Canada
August 11, 2008 5:18pm CST
I have been growing a vegetable garden for ten+ years and I have had decent success. Most of the time it is a shortage of water that reduces the crop. But this year we have had lots of rain therefore that has not been a problem. My problem though is that, even with all that rain, my cucmber plants are dying off even though they still have lots of flowers. I did get lots of pickling cukes (21 - 1.5 Litre jars of dill pickles) and my daughter and I have been eating regular cukes for the last three weeks. Why would the plants dy off so early? I have noticed a similar problem in my tomato plants as some look like they normally do at the end of September.
1 person likes this
4 responses
@byfaithonly (10698)
• United States
21 Aug 08
My cucumbers and tomatoes aren't doing nearly as well as I had expected - the whole season has been strange, my pumpkins took forever to get started then went crazy but now I have 30 or more pumpkins that are bright orange already and the vines are starting to die off - I don't think I'm going to have pumpkins to sell for Thanksgiving season :( which I had planned on doing.
Do you rotate your crops in the garden? If not it could be the particular plants have just used up the nutrients in the soil - some good compost might help.
@byfaithonly (10698)
• United States
26 Aug 08
We've had just the opposite problem - no rain. We did actually get a few hours of rain the other day but that was the first we'd had in nearly 2 months - I've been trying to water but we have a huge garden and the pump would be running all day every day to water everything the way it needs.
@sandyrusty (278)
• Canada
26 Aug 08
The spot that I am doing my garden in has only been a garden for the second year. My pumpkins are like you said - ready to pick and it is only end-Aug. The zucchini plants are already done when usually they last for four flowerings, the cukes are done - all the vine plants. We have had a very wet summer without the normal intense heat. So I am going to hope that next year is more of a normal year and I get to enjoy the vegetables for longer.
@peavey (16936)
• United States
12 Aug 08
If you had lots of rain, maybe you had too much? Are the plant leaves turning yellow near the bottom of the plant? Sometimes that means too much water.
My tomatoes did almost nothing this year because it was so hot. Now it's cooling down and they're blooming again, but they won't have time to make anything before frost, I fear.
@sandyrusty (278)
• Canada
12 Aug 08
I do suspect too much rain but the next responder does bring up a possibility. I might just try testing the soil to see if there is a lack of nitrogen.
@sandyrusty (278)
• Canada
11 Aug 08
Mine are in a large plot of land. I know that if you grow in pots, they need more care as for feed and water; but I have grown tomatoes every year and usually get so many that the last of them end up rotting on the ground because I can't eat them fast enough (and I will eat 1 to 2 dozen a day). I think it is an unbalanced diet of rain and sunshine (or lack of it). We usually have relatively dry Julys but this year we have had rain almost every third day or more.
