In hot climates, sometimes it's best to add some shade to the garden, especially a little afternoon shade. But I suspect it was the abrupt transition that burnt your plants. It probably would have been better to give them a little more sun each day, either by moving back and forth or with shade cloth.

The fish emulsion can also burn.

You may want to consider setting up a drip irrigation system on a timer. Once a day may not be enough for your containers in a hot, arid climate. When I gardened in So Cal, my containers needed water twice a day during the heat of summer. (And yes, I had everything in part sun instead of full sun.)

Couple of suggestions.

1. Use container medium in containers -- a shovel of top soil and compost isn't good container medium.

2. When plants are stressed, the last thing you should do is dump a bunch of fertilizer on them.

3. When you do fertilize, do so at the recommended rates -- not extra strong.

4. Plants benefit from being transitioned gradually to more intense light exposure. In fact, that is the principle of hardening off seedlings started indoors. It's not the cold that gets them in the spring -- it's sun and wind burn.

Thanks that makes sense. The reason I fertilized the corn( and I thought it might help the cucumber also, but that might have been false..)(some other cumumber have very very light leaves) ,bec they got brownish leaves and leaves lost color.The soil seemed to be wet enough.( Actually could I have overwatered them? some of the corn had plates underneath and I put water in that pan. Can you overwater that way too?) Someone said that the soil might be to alkaline( I used potting soil)and they might be missing iron. So I thought fish emusion might help w/ that? Or what can I do to correct the probably missing minererals? The problem is I don't know for sure, what is missing.Thanks

As I mentioned on the Container Gardening Forum, if I had to guess, and based solely on the odds, I'd first look toward a poor soil and/or over-watering, and/or over-fertilizing for the answer, but there would have to be more of a dialog before we could think about pinning it on something more definite.

I suppose the sun might have had something to do with it, but if they were already in partial sun before, it shouldn't have made a difference that dramatic unless there were also other issues in play ..... namely compromised root function or (in)ability to remain hydrated because of (high) fertility issues.

Al

So are cucumbers more sensitive to over watering and fertilizing? Seems like it was over watered, over fertilized and put in the sun to early? Corn is more sturdy than cucumbers? So far I haven't had much luck w/ cucumbers. Well the corn we had last year was planted in a low sun spot and also died for what ever reason. Thanks

What are you using for soil (the growing medium) in your containers?

Al

I use organic potting soil. I used 2 different brands. I have to see, if I still have the bag.

There is a container gardenening forum, but you are already threading with tapla, whom I have learned most of what I do with containers, so I would say you are in luck.

Are you using soilless potting mix?

No, I don't think so. I have used different potting soil, just whatever I found at the store. Thanks

Fish emulsion may not be high enough in nitrogen especially if you are using soilless mix or a mixture very low in compost/soil. Fish fert is great for in ground garden but needs to be applied twice a week or more for containers.

My container plants recovered somewhat once I started using higher nitrogen content.

Thanks so much