I have posted many recent bits of info for cukes. Avoid 'burpless' type as they tend to be bland and lack the necessary base taste for a decent pickle. Burpless bred in will reduce other necessary tastes and texture. Round or ball shaped indicates they are not getting enough constant water. I used to get golf ball shaped cukes with tiny points at the blossom ends. The pots the are planted in need to be quite large, at least 1 foot square and deep. Good soil is very necessary and thats not something you can easily get from a bag. Adding all these, as well as minerals and stuff can only confuse a cuke plant to beyond its normally growing mode. They love heat, sun, and water, as well as a good trellis to raise up the vines a few feet. Smoke in the air can have some effect, but if its not always dark, the should still grow quite well. I prefer to plant several pickling types and most are ligher green at the stem end and an almost white skin at the blossom end. Neither color is the same as a store bought big, all green, thick tough skinned cuke, which I do not buy. The fertilizers are also very important for proper growth. They are usually low/slow release types and not purely chemical based like Miracle Grow, or other harsh basics like urea and phoshorous, etc. Reusing a potting soil the next year is not a good idea as it already has had all its necessary growing culture depleated of its essential nutrients. Even fertilizers alone will not help to improve it much. A mix in of good quality compost and some well composted manure are also good options, as is humate, and many micro nutrients. For me, I also give the cuke's foliage a spray of liquid kelp about twice a month. This gets taken into the leaves and also helps to stimulate the growing.
One last item. Plant gender can also be a problem with just two plants nearby each other, as you may see many flowers but very few if any cukes later on. My manturing cukes seem to grow about an inch ovenight. Squash also does well if there is plenty of water. Not dripping and soaking, but at least always moist. If the lowest leaves start to turn yellow, back off a little with watering. County Fair, and National Pickler, as well as the Heinz cuke are also good choices. Most picklers are spiny and they can hold up to most all pickling quite well. If at all possible, sow seeds directly in the ground. Yellow lower leaves are a indication of over watering or poor drainage. Once the leaves turn yellow, its usually death. There is also powdery and/or downy mildew that is carried by cuke beetles and also in the soil. These spell quick suffocation for most any cuke plant. I found that if I spray a product called 'Serenade' it seems to help reduce the issue of mildews, and the plants can resist it better. All this info is based on Cornell University research and my well over 30+ years of experience in cuke growing..

Here is a link that might be useful: PIckling cukes

I know from the many discussions over on the Vegetable Gardening forum here that many are having cuke problems this year simply because of the difficult and unusual weather much of the country has been having. So that may be part of your problems too.

Also, your description of the problems all seem to lead back to the soil in your containers and something wrong with it. Did you always grow them in containers? What container mix did you use? Is it possible that the containers are too small so that the plants have become root bound? How often and how much are you watering them?

More info would be of help and you may also want to browse through all the cuke discussions over on the Vegetable forum for more ideas.

Good luck.

Dave

Currently, mine are doing quite well since I just started to pick a few days ago. They were slow in starting (planted seeds May 25), but a couple of recent kelp sprays has taken that to the next level. With lots of rain the last two days and a hurried picking early this morning I got a few bigger good sized ones so far. Soil nutrients are a major factor in the plants growth, Most all farmers are crop rotators too. Without ammendments, soil testing, and rotating crop areas, All these conditions will soon create very hostile areas. Tomatoes and peppers, for instance, can grow quite well for a few years in the same spot. But once a blite happens, its going to spell peril for any future plantings in that same spot, maybe for years to come. The same holds true for cukes and many other water loving plants. There are many organic based soil improvers out there, and activators that can help improve a container soil, but to what extent each can reach can only depend on very specific conditions. NPK is just not he basics anymore. Poor growth and dying plants, need to get the stuff under their 'feet' tested, and very soon. Obviously now is not a good time to mess with soil quality due to possible (?) active growth. But after the summer, get a GOOD soil test done. Iron, calcium, magnesium zinc, copper, and so many micro-nutrients, the list can go on and on. Labs are the ONLY way to get a good concise soil test done. I would expect that my garden would suffer this year has I not know that nitrogen was only at 8% of normal. That was the spring. After almost 200 pounds of cotton seed meal and feather meal, it has been really good. Three years ago, yellowing weak plants. Again a good soil test and it showed absolutely NO iron. I added 300 pounds of iron sulfate and a 50 pound bag of lime (counteracts the acid lowering). Its been perfect for the last 3 years now.

Gardening can be easy, if its done right, and planned well ahead of time.

My cukes are in the same sized pots that I always use, with the same brand potting soil, in the same locations as other years.

The only differences I can think of are that I put them in quite a bit earlier this year than I usually do, and we did have that week or so of horrid winds that really did a number on the plants...but the new growth shouldn't be affected by that. I did put some of that soil moist polymer stuff in the pots, which should actually protect them from the vagaries in watering...it's really helped my tomatoes as it gets so hot here in the valley that otherwise I'm watering twice a day and end up with blossom end rot.

And now, my green bean bushes are starting to look kind of scrappy!!

I guess today I'll give them all a good dose of food & minerals, since the last time I did that it seemed to help briefly...if I over feed them they're not going to be much worse than they are now...those cukes are good for nothing but relish.

The same as far as the name.. But, potting soil isnt what cukes like to grow in to get them to become sizable, flavorful, and all the rest that makes for a health plant. Try not to add too much nitrogen! More healthy green leaves are something good, but if that N is giving its all, the rest of the needs are usually shut down. Slow to release fertilizers with no chemicals (most Miracle Grow) are the best choices. Additionally, a few foliar sprays of a liquid kelp 2-3 times in a month will also help. Adding harsh chemical ferts can burn roots too. A slow release (not man made pelletized type ferts) are not helpful here either. Many bagged potting soils use that pelletized (small round balls) product to help enrich, only to have it either break down too fast, or not at all. At least in your area, you can even plant more cuke seeds now. They do well when planting and soil temps are at least 75 degrees.

Good growing.

rachelellen, that is odd! I know that frustration when something that's worked perfectly well in the past suddenly doesn't one year (especially frustrating when people then tell you it should never have worked in the first place, and you're like, um, well, it DID!).

Bean problem seems especially odd---you know legumes are nitrogen fixers and so don't usually get "fed" with fertilizer at all?

Just to rub it in, I"ve got the opposite---have never had much success with cukes at all, in containers OR the ground---they get bug-eaten to nothing, stay stunted, and/or produce miniscule amounts. This year I threw all the remainder of a packet of lemon cuke seeds into the ground maybe 15-20 seeds, figuring with past experience I'd be lucky if two or three plants survived and thrived. Of course all germinated, I had to thin them down, and now I have about 8 enthusiastic vines climbing a trellis and covered with flower buds. (Knock on wood---that's still not the same as having ripe fruit, of course, and I did see my first beetles on the plants today.)

Wish you luck. And hey, I'nm still weeks from my first tomato....

Z

Well, I suppose I should be happy that my tomato plants have been keeping me happy for a few weeks now...my stepmother is still longing for her tomatoes in Maine, too.

I did not know that about beans. I've always done quite well with them in pots, planting bush beans instead of pole because a bush bean plant will grow and thrive in a smaller pot than will support a decent trellis. But they just aren't looking happy...the leaves look like I wasn't careful about watering them and they got burnt, though I'm very careful. And while last week they were just getting into serious production mode, the last few days they've been collectively (all 5 of them) producing about 5 or 6 pickable beans a day.

Well, as I tell myself, all this gardening in pots because I live in a rental is teaching me all sorts of things for when we buy our own place and I can have an actual veggie bed.

ksrogers, thanks for all the info. You're right, I can start some new plants now for cukes in the fall...I'll start those in the back yard to shelter them from the fierce, late afternoon sun that is coming in August.

I don't know how much cukes usually like potting soil, I just know that I've done much better with them in the past, using the same soil, same pot size, same fertilizer, same watering...yada yada. It's aggravating.

rachelellen: Several things can be effecting the productivity of your potted cukes, from the weather, a change in the soil company's soil mix, to the genetics of the individual plants. I have never seen such a monster cuke plant as the one volunteer that came up just outside a flowerbed by my larger greenhouse. The soil there is hot, dryish, hard and packed from being walked on and yet this cuke is thriving. I've put up enough pickles for a year from this one plant, plus have cukes for the table. The recent rain has it producing hundreds of flowers on it's many "branches."

All you can do is try another cuke plant or a different type if cuke and hope for the best. Watch the water soluble fertilizers. Too much can stunt plants, both veggies and flowers.

Growing anything in pots is a challenge. My stuff here in pots are only for flowers and my non-winter hardy fig tree (now weighs in at 78 pounds!). Potting soil too, is usually meant mostly for flowers. Ever consider this? a 10 foot long vine... how long is its roots going to be? Aspragus roots, for instance, can grow down 20 FEET!! A bush bean and bush cuke plant might be the better options in pots. Because you and I don't really know what Is in that potting soil you have, there is no real easy way to tell. If at all possible, plant in mother earth. Another laborous option. Place all the old soils you have in a big covered container. add any garden wastes, mulch, leaves, grass clippings, an even some bagged soil. Water lightly, toss, cover, stir, and by next year, you should probably have a decent mix of stuff, IF it has been doing its job.. Key word-- COMPOST! Black Gold for real.

Finally, for beans and peas, when plantng the seeds, I add a soil 'innouclent' that creates a natural 'nitrogen fixing' environment right at seed sprouting time. Its proven to be well worth the extra little effort when some is sprinkled into every seed hole. Peas here are planted in 1 foot long 2 inch wide rows, and have close spacings about 2 inches apart or less. The number of plants from each row can be 10. They are all hapy with each other and grow very well on their own. My last round of peas were over a gallon after shelling.

I am also suspecting that the commercially bagged potting soil may contain 'buffers and amendments' to reduce any high levels of something that might cause that soil from being ready to package. Avoid burpless cukes as that defeats the purpose for a firm crunchy pickle.

You know, something I hadn't thought of was variety. I started my cukes from seed this year, rather than buying the plants from the nursery. I wonder if I got varieties that just don't do well 'round here? Maybe I'll stop by the nursery and see if they have any starts left. I still have 2 1/2 months of growing season left.

Around here, right now, you would be hard pressed to find any summer veggy stuff, unless it was a fall crop. For nurseries to offer unique type plants, may also be hard to locate. They ship from greenhouses and you never know what they were handled in, shipped in, watered in, and all other unknown factors. For things like these I buy seeds. Tomato and pepper too. That way, you usually know what will grow into, with less surprises.