Sorry to say but there is no hope for that cuke to come back.
from your description it died beause of hot air and dry soil

It looks like a disease. There are little yellow spots and much larger disease areas on the leaves. I'm no good at diagnosing, but you should remove them and not compost the plants.

It looks like mine did when they got cucumber wilt. From what I read it's a virus or bacteria (forgive my interchanging those terminologies at times, I don't remember offhand) carried by the cucumber beetle and when they feed on an otherwise healthy vine it gets infected, wilts and dies in a very short period of time. This killed all of mine last year, despite replanting two more times.

I hope this isn't what you have but it's a possibility.

I'm on the lookout this year and will be spraying early at ANY signs of cucumber beetles.

Sorry about your cuke.

Are you sure there are no cucumber beetles around?

Try this - at least to help figure out what is going on (from the link below):

To test for the disease cut a wilted stem , press the side of a knife to the exposed surface and draw it away. If the plant is infected with bacterial wilt disease you may notice white strands of bacterial ooze. You can also immerse a piece of wilted stem in room temperature water and look for a milky discoloration of the water caused by the bacteria. The bacteria overwinters in adult cucumber beetles hibernating around the garden.

On the same link go to the drop down menu and click on Wilting:Drought/Waterlogged. That pic is perhaps more indicative of what your cukes may have.

***Fellow Gardener Hug***

Here is a link that might be useful: Bacterial Wilt

I inspected the cucumbers a little more closely. The wilted/dried leaves have some holes in them, and as annew pointed out, there are some yellow spots on some of the leaves.

I don't see any cucumber beetles around.
I do see a couple of very tiny black bugs (maybe aphids). I also see some slug/snail slime residue on some of the leaves. Also upon closer inspection of the stalk, I see that some of the outer layer of stalk looks rubbed off. You can see some of that in picture #3 above.

Last year my cucumbers failed, and looks like this year will be a failure. Maybe I should give up.
If hot air is a problem for cucumbers, then it might not work in my area. Summers get up to 105 degrees, and my raised planter box gets full sun throughout the day.

There might be something in your soil. I don't think it's the temperature because I've grown cucumbers for years here in central NC and we have many 100 degree days in the summer. Cucumbers and among the plants that seem to handle the heat pretty well. I wonder if your local extension service could test your soil for disease?

-Anne

Anne- I have not tested the soil. I amended with some store bought compost before I transplanted, and I added some granular vegetable food a couple weeks after transplanting. So I assume the soil has enough nutrients.

I've noticed some slug/snail trail residue up the main stalk. Could that be the cause?

Here are 2 updated photos. The larger cucumber plant seems to have recovered, and the leaves are not as wilted. There are some yellow spots on the leaves though. There are new leaves and tendrils sprouting though!
However, the small cucumber looks sad. I see some nubs of new growth, and the stem is still green and semi-healthy looking, so I'm not sure if it will grow new leaves or not.

If you noticed the stem of the small cucumber, it looks like it has been worn down or eaten by a pest. What is that from?
Again, I see no beetles, slugs, or other pests when I check on the cucumbers.

{{gwi:57355}}

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What if the small cucumber dies and the big one survives. Will that big one produce fruit on its own without the other?

thanks.

This post was edited by uscjusto on Tue, May 14, 13 at 13:42

BUSTED!

So I checked on the cucumbers in the middle of the night just to see if there were any night time pests attacking the cucumber.

I see this...
{{gwi:61120}}

Is this very common? Slugs on the cucumber leaves and plant causing damage to the plant? Could I have found the culprit or is it something else that is killing my cucumber?

Any solutions to slugs in the planter box?

I've heard (on this forum) that Sluggo is very effective.

That said, in my own personal experience slugs usually devour seedlings or eat holes in leaves. I haven't heard of them carrying disease, which is not to say that they can't. You might be able to solve the slug problem but still have the disease on your plants. I would keep trying to figure out what is causing the disease.

USC, that wilt is screaming bacteria most likely from Cucumber Beetles. I've had similar problems the past few summers and just posted about this today (I'm preparing for war with these suckers but they always win). I have no idea if slugs or other insects can transfer the disease, it may just be coincidence that you saw a slug. I've posted pics in past summers, if you can search on my username you will be able to see them.

I agree with omega. Your root problem is a disease. Slugs do not typically bother cucumbers, but when a plant is weakened already, every pest in the state seems to converge on them.

I think I would plant some small bush type cucs like Spacemaster or Picklebush in a great big pot and give that garden soil some rest this year. Ditto for squash or melons.

Do you rotate your crops? This is one reason it is a good idea. It is also very important to clean out all spent plants each and every fall so that you remove as many nasties as possisble. When they overwinter in your garden, they are actually making additions to their home. They'll be back with even greater power the next year.

You might also consider solarizing that part of the bed in the hopes that you can kill the bacteria or virus there.

Thanks for the info.
This is only my 2nd year growing in this raised planter. Only tomatoes last year.

I've searched all over and can't find a single cucumber beetle in the area. I planted burpless cukes this time bc I like the taste.

Maybe I'll give up on growing cucumbers. They seem so difficult.

Now that yoy have found slugs, Do this:
Chech the stem(s) at ground level. is it chewed up a little ?
In the picture I see something of that nature.

Other thing could be a grub, biting the stem in the ground. Just dig around it and pull it out and examine the root system for rotting or other things. This is much better than guessing game.

I had two cuke plants in a container last year and one succumbed to wilt, while the other was unaffected. I never saw cuke beetles on the those plants but they were present on other plants in my garden area. You can try starting more seed or get another replacement plant, however you don't need two plants for production. Each plant has male and female flowers.

Update:

The big cuke is still growing new leaves and a couple tendrils. The leaves still wilt and droop during the day, then perk back up in the evening when the temperature and sun go down.

{{gwi:61121}}

The small cuke stem is still green and is not dying, but the leaves are mostly dead and I'm not sure there is any new leaf growth.

{{gwi:61122}}

I'm still hopeful the big cuke is healthy and will produce fruit.

I agree that it is most likely that cucumber beetles introduced bacterial wilt to your cucumbers. The disease is not in your soil, it's in the beetles. There is no cure. You can only prevent the problem by choosing resistant varieties and using an appropriate insecticide from the beginning. I had the same problem with my cucumbers until I grew Diva cucumbers, which are supposed to be unappealing to the beetles, and started spraying regularly with spinosad. I never saw the beetles on my cucumbers, but I did see a few on other plants. Cucumbers grow fast, so you can choose a resistant variety and start over.

Here is a link that might be useful: Info on bacterial wilt

I didn't think cucumber beetles were a problem in California...

From what I've read, the western spotted cucumber beetle (Diabrotica undecimpunctata), sometimes called a "green lady bug," is a major problem in California. It may be different from the one I've dealt with in Ohio.

You can drape something light over your remaining plant during the hottest part of the day...I used a semi-sheer curtain. My plants were on the west side of our building(when we were in Wisconsin)and it got very hot. The fabric kept the plants cooler but I still had to water the containers twice a day.

Thank you everyone for the input. My cucumbers are doing the same thing. At first I thought it was because it was hot and during a three day trip...no water. But then it was apparent that maybe something was eating the roots or there was more of a virus/bacterial problem. I am going to see if I can get them to pull through. Sucks to spend two months, start to get fruit then this occurs. ugh

cucumber wilt sounds like the culprit. we had 30 cukes last week and noticed the one plant didn't look healthy and checked for critters, nothing. it has now spread to the entire cucumber colony. now if we could only get rid of those voracious japanese beetles.

Also could be gummy stem blight. I had similar issues and was terrified it was bacterial wilt. I tested over and over for slimy stuff from the stems but never was there. And most of the plants did ok. The lower leaves would yellow and die, but the upper leaves seemed pretty healthy. I am a total self taught gardener, but ultimately I think it was gummy stem causing my issues. The fact that you have brown spots on your stems as well makes me think this may be more likely than bacterial wilt.