What to do when cucumber seedlings turn yellow and dry, the leaves curl and turn white?

By growing cucumbers from seedlings, you can get a very early harvest (15-20 days earlier than the main one grown without seedlings). To obtain healthy, beautiful seedlings of this vegetable crop, you need to take into account many different nuances and certain recommendations. By adhering to all the growing secrets, you can easily harvest a generous harvest of early cucumbers.

Reasons for yellowing of cucumber seedlings

Despite the careful care of cucumber seedlings, the gardener often faces an unpleasant problem - the leaves of the plants begin to turn yellow.

Lack of light

Since cucumbers are early-ripening vegetable crops, they are characterized by a high intensity of photosynthetic processes. Plants respond positively to increased light levels. A high fruit yield can be obtained by growing the crop in open, well-lit areas.

Yellowing lower leaves on seedlings are a characteristic sign of light deficiency. Due to the large size of the upper leaves, the lower tier may not receive enough light.

Need to:

move the seedlings to a well-lit place (south or south-east window);
during the cotyledon leaf phase, illuminate with phytolamps for 3-4 days without interruption;
organize additional lighting (daylight hours should be at least 16 hours).

Lack of moisture

Cucumber seedlings have a fast growth rate, so the plants need a lot of moisture. When there is a lack of moisture, there is a shortage of nutrients, because they are absorbed by the roots in dissolved form. Seedlings need to be watered with settled water heated to +25...+28 degrees 3 times a week.

Fungal diseases

Infection of plants by pathogens of fungal diseases can cause yellowing of leaves. When growing seedlings in a greenhouse, sometimes there is a violation of the irrigation and temperature regime.

Excessively moistened soil substrate and high air humidity provoke the development of fungal diseases.

Optimal air humidity is 70-75%, soil humidity is 70-80%. It is necessary to treat the affected plants with fungicide solutions.

Nutritional deficiencies

This vegetable crop removes relatively few nutrients from the soil, but due to the high rate of their absorption, early ripening and placement of roots in the upper ball of soil, the cucumber has high requirements for soil fertility. In the first two weeks after emergence, the plant needs to be provided with increased nitrogen nutrition.

Visual diagnosis of battery shortage:

the leaf blade along the edges began to turn yellow and dry out, perhaps the plant lacks Mg or K;
the leaf turned yellow, but the veins remained green - lack of Fe and Mn;
the upper part of the leaf blade has turned yellow - lack of Cu.

The deficiency of macro- and microelements must be eliminated by fertilizing with special microfertilizers.

Damage to seedling roots

This vegetable crop has a very fragile and delicate root system, so cucumbers are often grown without picking. Some gardeners prefer to plant seeds immediately in separate containers so as not to injure the roots of the plant during replanting. The root system can also be damaged by pests, or the roots can be damaged by weeding and weed removal. When this unpleasant situation occurs, the plant cannot absorb nutrients. The leaf blades are the first to react - they turn yellow.

Sunburn

Pale yellow spots on the leaves appear due to sunburn. You need to water the seedlings at the roots, making sure that condensation does not accumulate on the leaves.

What to do if the edges of the leaves dry out on cucumber seedlings?

Drying of the leaves of cucumber seedlings can occur due to several reasons. If you encounter one of them, try to eliminate it immediately. If you don’t do this in time, the plants will wither and die.

The reasons for leaf drying are:

The leaves of cucumber seedlings may dry out due to poor-quality planting material. In such a situation, you will not be able to help the plants in any way. It is better, of course, if time permits, plant a second batch of seedlings, but using high-quality material.
You can prepare such a substrate in advance: take 1 liter of peat and 1 liter of humus. To these ingredients add 1/2 liter of sawdust and 2 whispers of ash. Mix everything well and you can use it. Additionally, add a little ordinary soil from the garden to the resulting material.

There are several reasons for dry leaves

Leaves may dry out due to insufficient nutrition. As a rule, this happens because the seedlings do not have enough space in the planting container. In this case, do not water the plants for 2 days, but do not let them wilt at all.
After this, carefully remove each bush along with the soil and transplant it into a large container. If you do not want to damage the seedlings, then revive them with special fertilizers, for example, potassium sulfur or superphosphate.
Leaves may also dry out due to improper watering. Many people know that cucumbers love strong moisture. But this is only for those plants that are planted in the garden in open soil.
Indoor soil does not require heavy watering, since the room does not have the necessary ventilation and sufficient natural heating. In this case, reduce the frequency of watering and make sure that the soil is not very wet.

Diseases and treatment

Downy mildew

Multiple light yellow spots appear on the leaf blades; over time, the leaves and vines dry out.

Plants are treated with solutions such as: Morestan, Bayleton, Quadris-250, Karatan, Ridomil Gold MC, Saprol, as well as a suspension of colloidal sulfur.

Root rot

The roots turn brown, become thinner and dry out, and over time the entire stem dies. The reason may be:

cold irrigation water;
deep planted seeds;
thickened plantings;
sudden temperature changes.

To eliminate this unpleasant situation, the biological product Trichodermin is added to the soil before planting seedlings.

Cucumbers bloom, but do not bear fruit. What to do?

Hello! We are often asked questions: why do cucumbers bloom and not bear fruit?

First of all, we must say that there are two types of cucumbers: bee-pollinated and self-fertile, which are popularly called self-pollinated. Therefore, for simplicity, we will say this, so you should know very well what kind of cucumber you plant. If you have a self-pollinated cucumber, then its main fruiting is on the central stem. We pinch the side shoots of this cucumber somewhere above the second leaf. And in bee-pollinated varietal cucumbers, there are male flowers on the central stem that do not bear fruit. Accordingly, barren flowers and female flowers that bear fruit in varietal cucumbers develop on the side shoots, respectively. You can’t pinch them short, and here’s why: we see the following picture: cucumbers are blooming, blooming with male flowers, and there is no harvest on varietal bee-pollinated cucumbers. Female flowers on the side shoots appear 2-3 weeks after the male flowers, this is biologically designed by nature, so we repeat, if you have a lot of flowers and no harvest, you just need to wait a couple of weeks until the side shoots develop. Female flowers will appear on them and, accordingly, cucumbers will be narrower. And on self-pollinated cucumbers there is a flower and immediately after it a cucumber, that is, there will never be empty flowers, this does not mean that the varieties and hybrids of self-pollinated cucumbers are better than bee-pollinated ones, it’s just that their harvest begins to form earlier.

A few more words about care. We prefer tied cucumbers. They get sick less, and since we plant self-fruiting cucumbers, which bear fruit on the central stem, it is convenient to tie it up from the point of view of providing the cucumber with carbon dioxide. If you have plenty of space for side shoots and bee-pollinated varieties, then get ready for the next picture. In bee-pollinated varieties, cucumbers appear a little later than in fruit-bearing varieties. So, cucumbers begin to grow a little later, but there are a lot of them. There you can get 5-6 buckets a day for one garden! And this continues for a week or a week and a half, essentially until the first rain, because after the rain a fungal disease begins to develop. Have you noticed that if there are spots on the leaves, or the edges begin to turn yellow and seem to dry out, this is really a disease that needs to be fought with antifungal agents. But you can’t really fight, because the ground is very close to the leaf, it rains and the leaf is constantly infected, plus dew falls in the morning and evening. That is, cucumbers are at a very high risk of disease, and this disease occurs at some point. And when the cucumbers are tied up, of course, they also need to be treated preventively, but they get sick much less, that is, because of the rain, a couple of the lower leaves may turn yellow, but then the top will be green until frost. Everything will be fine, even if you leave for two weeks and then return, you will see that our cucumbers are sick, we also take those treated with phytodoctor and trichodermin biological preparations. We alternate them. But accordingly, the lower leaves will certainly never turn green again if they have already turned yellow. The affected tissue will not be green again, but on the other hand, young foliage and young cucumbers are growing on top, and fruiting continues perfectly.

Let's summarize. If you have little space and want early cucumbers, then you should sow self-fertile ones and tie them to a trellis. And if your space allows, you can take varietal seeds, they are also a little cheaper.

Pests

Aphid

The pest can be found on the top of the shoot, the underside of the leaf blade and on the stem. Aphids suck out cell sap, depleting the seedlings.

Plants are treated with a soap solution or insecticide solution.

Spider mite

It is an insect up to 1 mm in size that feeds on cell sap. The plant begins to dry out and die. When affected by this pest, plants are treated with solutions of insecticides (Acrex, Keltan, Bi-58 new, Karbofos, Actellik, Tedion). The biological control method is the use of the phytoseiulus mite.

Whitefly

Pest larvae feed on plant cell sap, seedlings wither and die. Plants are treated with solutions such as: Actellik, Confidor, Commander.

Sprout fly

Pest larvae damage and gnaw through sown or already sprouted seeds and seedlings. For control, an insecticide solution is used, and treated seed material is sown in the soil.

Insects

Some of the main enemies of cucumbers are insects, which cause the stems of young cucumbers to dry out:

When growing vegetables in open ground, flies cause many problems. The primary sign of damage by them is a change in the color of the surface of the sprouts. If measures are not taken in time, the cucumber bush dries out. In young plants, damage begins at the base of the trunk. This is due to eggs in the soil. They drill through the subcotyledonous knee of the seedlings and penetrate into the stem.
The cucumber mosquito is especially harmful to crops in greenhouses. The pest is introduced into the soil with manure. The larvae make holes in the branches of the cucumber, which disrupt the structure of the stem, causing the bush to die.
In open ground, melon aphids appear on cucumbers towards the end of summer, and in greenhouses and small homemade film shelters - in the spring. During this period, active reproduction of insects occurs; garden plants are literally completely covered with them. The leaves curl and fall off, and the shoots themselves become covered with small yellowish cracks and quickly dry out.

Insect pests are not difficult to control. Work on the beds begins with an inspection of garden crops. When pests are detected, measures are immediately taken to combat them. In this case, you can minimize the damage and preserve the harvest.

Prevention

In order to minimize damage to plants by insect pests and pathogens, it is necessary:

adhere to crop rotation;
purchase seed material characterized by disease resistance;
Treat the seeds before sowing;
adhere to the watering regime;
feed the plants in a timely manner;
respond in time to the first manifestations of diseases and pests;
remove damaged plants;
destroy weeds;
remove plant debris from the site at the end of the growing season.

How to save the harvest

1. Buy seeds in specialized stores.

2. For open ground, choose varieties of hybrid cucumbers with good immunity; plant cucumbers intended for growing indoors in greenhouses.

3. Before planting seedlings, water the soil with water adding 1/2 tsp. potassium permanganate and 20 drops of iodine (per 10 liters of water);

4. Follow the watering and fertilizing regimes. Regularity is the key to a good harvest. Ventilate the greenhouses, wipe the coating from condensation.

5. Water the cucumbers with warm water, the optimal temperature is +20+22 degrees.

6. Trim plants so that the lower leaves and shoots do not touch the ground, do not thicken the plantings.

7. Tie the cucumbers to the trellises, do not leave the vines on the ground.

8. Cut off the affected leaves, do not leave them on the site, they should be burned in a fire.

9. To repel insect pests, treat the bushes once every 14 days:

garlic tincture (100 g of ground cloves per 10 liters of water);
tincture of onion peel (pour boiling water over 200 g, dilute in 10 liters of water);
decoctions of dandelions, nettles or yarrow.

10. Observe the plantings daily; any problem is easier to prevent than to treat.

Methods for restoring cucumber seedlings

The most common problems with plants are:

the plants are not watered with water, but sprayed - the lower ball of soil dries out, the root system begins to dry out. You need to immediately start watering the seedlings well, the soil ball should always be moist;
seedlings are flooded - the root system dies from oxygen starvation and excess moisture. Check if the drainage hole is clogged and clean it;
If watering is excessive and the soil and air temperatures are low, root rot develops. The surviving plants are washed with roots in a solution of potassium permanganate and transplanted into fresh soil substrate;
If the soil substrate contains a large amount of nitrogen compounds, the plants are watered frequently and the air temperature in the room is high, the seedlings grow strongly. The temperature should be lowered, the intensity of watering should be reduced, and fertilizing should be stopped.

The new summer season will begin very soon, so it’s time to think about sowing seeds and growing seedlings. To avoid grief and disappointment, try to do everything right from the very beginning, because this process has many subtleties. Try it yourself, experiment, create the necessary conditions for the plants, and you will definitely succeed!

How to treat cucumbers

In some cases, cucumber leaves turn yellow due to improper care of people. What should I do to fix this problem? See if the bushes have enough moisture. After all, this vegetable should be considered moisture-loving, so watering should be plentiful.

However, the leaves may dry out due to increased watering. Then it is recommended to wait for subsequent moistening of the soil.

The edges of cucumber leaves also dry out when there is a deficiency of useful elements in the soil. Therefore, it is necessary to supply the soil with minerals, namely wood ash. As a rule, it is sprinkled on open ground where vegetables are planted.

Errors during landing

For cucumbers, you need wide cups with large drainage holes. Remember that the roots of the plant branch out to the sides. Recommendations for planting and growing in open ground:

Do not choose a place where cucumbers sat last year. You can return to this bed after 3-4 seasons.
Do not plant in overly lit areas. Cucumbers need 10-12 hours of photoperiod. They develop well in partial shade.
Don't skimp on space between holes. The best distance is 60 cm.
Apply fertilizers on time. Their deficiency and excess are equally harmful.
Harden off the plants for a week 10–14 days before planting. Keep them in the shade at a temperature of +8–10 degrees for 2-3 hours every day.

Reasons for yellowing of cucumber seedlings