[arronc]

I have 7 cucumber in the greenhouse all of which i thought were doing great but a few days ago i noticed a dusty substance on the stem of one of my plants. I rubbed it off which created a little puff of dust. Today i looked again and noticed the stem is starting to give way on the plant. the plant itself is healthy and starting to set fruit. Anybody know what this is?

Looking in my Vegetable Expert book, its a cross between "White Powdery Mold" & "Basil Stem Rot" now a friend of mine mentioned he had leaf mold last year and it knocked out his entire crop of cucumbers so should i just in case destroy the crop. It's my first year growing anything like this, and the one thing i wanted to grow was cucumbers.

Any advice or thoughts would be helpful thanks

[milkman]

I would never destroy plants that have the potential to produce a reasonable crop - my greenhouse cucumber plants are looking decidedly ropey - all sorts of splodges blotches etc. etc., but I've already picked three good sized cucumbers with another one due to be ready any day now.  

Try to avoid watering the leaves - water the base of the plant but make sure they aren't left standing in soggy water - they wont like it.  Mound up the soil around the base of the stem for them to put out extra roots and to allow water to run off and away.

Concentrate on the taste, flavour and freshness of the harvest and don't worry too much about what the plants themselves look like - if you have seven plants you're gonna have so many cucumbers soon you'll be scratching around for recipes to deal with them all!  

[richyrich7]

Nice advice milkman.

[arronc]

Another cucumber plant is dead, this time i took a picture. What is is it? "Basil Rot"? is there anything i can do to stop this happening to all of my plants?



Thanks

[Growbag]

I had this at the base of my cucumber plant.  I carefully wiped off the mould with kitchen towel, puffed some sulphur powder around the damaged area and topped dressed around the stem with just a little compost to allow more surface roots to grow.   I also stuck a bottle with a drip spike into the grow bag but away from the main stem so that I can water it without damaging the stem further.   I also pour a weak solution of nettle water into the bottle to give the cucumber nitrogen.  It's seems to have done the trick and I can see some more cucumbers getting past the embryo stage.

[milkman]

It's looking a bit damp and cramped in that pot - is there any chance of being able to plant it out into greenhouse soil or into a growbag?

[Aunt Sally]

Indoor cucumbers don't like to get wet stems so don't water near the stem.  I water through a 2L lemonade bottle with the bottom cut off inserted into the soil like a funnel.