Why do the leaves of cucumbers wither in a greenhouse, open ground + seedlings?

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Yakov Pavlovich

Professor, Head of the Department of Vegetable Growing

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Cucumbers can be sown with seeds directly into open ground, but if you want to get an early harvest, gardeners resort to growing seedlings. What to do when suddenly seemingly strong cucumber seedlings wither and fall, why this happens, what is the reason for such a misfortune, this question cannot but worry summer residents and vegetable growers. Most likely, care was not organized correctly, and diseases and pest attacks are also possible.

Why do the leaves of cucumbers in open ground wither? Place of landing and diseases

If the seedlings were planted in the wrong place, this will affect the plants in the summer. There are only two reasons why the planting site may be unsuitable and, as a result, the leaves on the cucumbers wither:

Plants may be exposed to direct sunlight. Although they love light, direct sunlight is harmful to them. This is explained by an increase in the rate of moisture evaporation from the leaf surface. Cucumber bushes are trying to resist this. Their leaves curl into tubes, thereby reducing the area of evaporation. Cucumbers die in the sun, they simply dry out.
The seedlings do not receive sun and are in the shade. If the bed is closely planted, the bushes shade each other. When they grow, a situation is created in which some lashes find themselves completely without light. The leaves of cucumbers turn yellow and wither, as if
Disease and insect pests are another common cause of wilted cucumber leaves. If we talk about diseases, then this is a symptom characteristic of fungal diseases. At the same time, the development of the disease and the impact of pests rapidly affect the plantings. If measures are not taken, the plant may die completely in a few days. Cucumbers in a polycarbonate greenhouse are also susceptible to pests.
If the leaves of cucumbers in a greenhouse wither, a thorough examination of the cucumber bushes will tell you what to do. Among the most common diseases are:

Rules for caring for cucumber seedlings, watering features

Usually, the best prevention of seedling wilting and the appearance of diseases is good care. It allows you to strengthen the immunity of seedlings and the vascular system, and increases resistance to the effects of pathogenic microorganisms. You can reap an excellent harvest from such bushes. It is necessary to begin work on disease prevention at the seed preparation stage.

All seed material must be disinfected. The soil also needs to be disinfected. After planting the seeds, the container with the future seedlings is covered with film and placed in a warm place. After approximately 7 days, the first shoots will appear. As soon as this happens, the film is removed, and the seedlings are sent to a well-lit place, protected from drafts. Experienced gardeners recommend thinning seedlings by cutting off weak shoots. There is no need to remove them by the roots; this manipulation can damage neighboring plantings.

To avoid problems with seedlings, you need to follow a few simple rules, which will be the key to getting an excellent harvest at the end of the season.

Cucumber seedlings grow best at an air temperature of 21 degrees during the day and 18 degrees at night.
Seedlings love light, but direct sunlight can cause burns and cause the plants to dry out. If there is not enough light, the stem quickly stretches, and very few leaves grow on it.
Avoid drafts, they are harmful to plants.
Cucumbers grown in a greenhouse must be ventilated daily.
Before planting seeds, check whether the container for growing them has drainage holes. Without them, water will accumulate at the roots, which can cause rot.
For watering, use only warm water.
2 weeks after the first leaves appear on the cucumbers, you can fertilize them using mullein, urea or manure. It is recommended to repeat the procedure after 8 days. Some gardeners prefer to fertilize with wood ash.
To increase productivity and speed up the growth process of cucumbers, some gardeners carry out picking. After this procedure, the seedlings wither slightly, but then recover. The drugs Humate and Epin will help speed up this recovery process.
If the bushes grow rapidly, it is recommended to pinch the crown.
7 days before transplanting cucumbers into a permanent bed, you need to start hardening them. To do this, the air temperature is reduced, watering is reduced, and the container with seedlings is periodically placed outside.

Wrong place to land

An important factor in why cucumber leaves wither is improper placement. The thing is that cucumbers love plenty of sunlight. If a situation occurs when the plant does not receive sunny color (due to abundant density), the entire bush begins to wither and dry out.

But, a completely different situation may arise, which occurs in the summer. When the sun is hot outside, the leaves may wilt or dry out from too much sun, causing limp edges to appear on the leaves or they begin to curl into a tube. This is done so that not the entire surface is exposed to sunlight and all moisture does not evaporate. If the temperature outside is quite high or, on the contrary, too low, the cucumbers begin to turn yellow.

Tips from Mister Summer Resident: preventing cucumbers from wilting

To avoid wilting of cucumbers, our portal https://mrdachnik.com advises following a few simple recommendations:

Try not to plant a crop twice in the same place, both outside and in the greenhouse. Cucumbers grow well after previous cultivation of tomatoes, legumes, nightshades, carrots, various varieties of cabbage, spinach and potatoes.
The bed should be well lit, but direct sunlight on the plant should be avoided.
It is better to plant seedlings or seed material according to the 0.5 m * 0.5 m pattern.
In order to prevent possible diseases of already harmful insects, beds and seeds should be treated with a solution of potassium permanganate, and insecticides should be used during the growing season.
After planting the ridges, it is useful to mulch. This will retain moisture, protect against weeds, and also warm the root system.
Plants should be watered with warm water 1 or 2 times a day, depending on the temperature and humidity. Of course, if it’s hot outside, cucumbers need more frequent watering, and in heavy rain there is no need to moisten the plantings at all. Read about how to properly water cucumbers on our website.
Do not forget that cucumbers require regular feeding with both organic and mineral fertilizers containing potassium, phosphorus and nitrogen.

Interesting video about growing cucumbers in a barrel:

Illiterate feeding

The balance of nutrients in the soil is one of the main conditions for the proper growth and development of cucumbers. Deficiency and excess of mineral and organic substances are equally contraindicated for the culture. The main elements are potassium, phosphorus and nitrogen. This is the basis of plant nutrition for good growth and abundant fruiting.

Ammonium nitrateSuperphosphatePotassium sulfate

But at different stages of development, the ratio of substances in the soil is not the same. Nitrogen is necessary at the stage of active shoot growth. At the beginning of the formation of buds and ovaries, cucumbers need phosphorus. The need for nitrogen is reduced at this time, so its excessive application to the soil harms plants. During active fruiting, the main element of fertilizing is potassium.

Prevention

Treating seeds before sowing with Fitolavin is a good prevention of early damage to cucumber. Preventive treatment of plants with microdoses of copper sulfate reduces the number of plants affected by fusarium by approximately 2 times. It is also important to regulate the relative air humidity in greenhouses within optimal values and to prevent the formation of water droplets. When characteristic leaf spotting appears, plants should be sprayed with a 0.5-0.7% solution of Bordeaux mixture, which delays the development of the disease. Subsequently, the plants are sprayed with a 0.2% solution of Fitolavin. The disease is most harmful in film greenhouses. The development of fusarium disease is promoted by cucumber monoculture, high air humidity, drip moisture and a combination of high daytime and low night temperatures. To protect plants from bacteriosis, it is important to create optimal conditions for the development of plants, avoid the appearance of drops on the leaves, preventively spray them with biological products, and after the appearance of symptoms - with copper-containing and bactericidal preparations. Bacteria synthesize proteins around which ice crystals quickly form even at low positive temperatures. This feature must be taken into account when carrying out preventive protective work. Infected plants have reduced cold resistance. The pathogen develops well in the temperature range from 12 to 25°C; it can be transmitted by seeds and drops of water during irrigation or rain.

Preventive measures against the appearance of aphids will be timely removal of various plant debris in which insect larvae settle. Treating cucumbers with infusions of various plants helps: tomato and potato tops, celandine, yarrow. Chemical preparations used include Fitoverm, Aktara, and Iskra. When affected by various diseases such as fusarium, treatment is carried out with drugs such as “Fitosporin-M”, “Topaz”, “Hom”.

As soon as the first signs of root rot appear, it is recommended to sprinkle the vine with earth at a distance of 10-15 cm from the main shoot. As a result, the lash will grow its own roots, which will allow it to be preserved even if the plant dies. If the plants have been severely affected by one of the types of rot, it is recommended to disinfect the soil in the fall, since the bacteria of this disease live in the soil. To prevent the appearance of fungal diseases of cucumber, they are treated with Bordeaux mixture.

Keep your area clean: it is in plant waste that most pests live and multiply.

Sclerotinia - white rot

If the disease has already spread greatly, remove the infected parts of the plants or the entire bush. Feed the cucumbers with this solution: 10 g of urea and 1 g of zinc sulfate and copper sulfate.

Gray rot. Treat with Bayleton fungicide. Remove the affected bush immediately.

Anthracnose (sedipweed), when brown spots appear on the leaves, stems and fruits, and the foliage begins to dry out, it is necessary to spray with 1% Bordeaux mixture once a week before harvesting, and treat the affected areas with a solution of copper sulfate (0.5% - m), then sprinkle with lime or coal.

As practice shows, the drug trichopolum helps to cope with various diseases of cucumbers.

Treatment with trichopolum is carried out for the following diseases:

parasporosis;
fusarium;
powdery mildew;
sclerotinia.
vascular bacteriosis;
wet rot;
angular spotting.

Spraying will help save you from diseases. You will need 1 tablet of trichopolum, which is diluted in 1 liter of warm water. You can treat the soil: 5 tablets are required for 10 liters of warm water. First, water with plain water, and then with a solution of trichopolum.

For prevention, 3 tablets per bucket are enough. And to enhance the effect of the drug, add 10 ml of brilliant green and 10 tablets of trichopolum to a bucket of water.

What diseases provoke the death of seedlings: therapeutic measures

There are a number of diseases that can cause a cucumber to wither. It is recommended to become more familiar with their features and treatment methods.

Fusarium

Often gardeners are faced with Fusarium wilt of cucumbers, which leads to the death of seedlings. The main reason for the development of the disease is overheating of seedlings and lack of moisture. To get rid of fusarium, the bushes are treated with Trichodermin or Planzir.

Anthracnose

A common fungal disease that causes cucumber bushes to dry out. Anthracnose also appears on zucchini, melon, peas, raspberries, currants and gooseberries. The development of the disease is promoted by high temperature and high humidity. Antifungal agents are used to combat the disease.

Downy mildew

Plants grown in a greenhouse often suffer from downy mildew. Because of this disease, yellow oily spots appear on the leaf blades of the lower and upper leaves. Over time, infected cucumbers wither and dry out. The following chemicals will help get rid of peronosporosis:

"Oxychom";
"Acrobat";
"Glyocladin."

Powdery mildew

Another disease that can cause vegetables to wilt is powdery mildew. With the development of this fungal pathology, not only the leaves, but also the root suffer. It stops developing, and because of this, the growth of the infected bush stops. Whey will help get rid of powdery mildew. To create a mixture for spraying seedlings, the serum is mixed with water in a ratio of one to ten.

Root rot

Many weakened cucumber seedlings begin to suffer from root rot. The development of the disease is facilitated by waterlogging of the soil and air. Root rot also develops due to a lack of nutritional components in the soil. Grated ash, coal or chalk will help get rid of the disease. Carefully sprinkle the powder onto the bottom of the stem.

Ascochyta blight

The disease develops in a humid and warm climate, and therefore cucumbers in greenhouses most often suffer from it. The ascochyta fungus becomes active in the spring, when cucumber seedlings are weakened. As the disease develops, raised yellow spots appear on the stems and leaves. The disease can be treated with fungicides such as Sprol and Tiram.

Mosaic virus

Mosaic appears on cucumber beds at the beginning of summer, when the temperature rises to thirty degrees. Light spots and small fine wrinkles appear on the affected leaves. To get rid of mosaic, seedlings are treated with fungicidal preparations.

What to do and how to process cucumbers

Having determined the cause of wilting of cucumber foliage, you need to act immediately to improve the health of the plants and protect them from more serious consequences.

How to deal with this:

If there is a lack of moisture, the bushes should be watered generously, after which the leaves should become stronger and toned again. It is important to water frequently (every other day), but not too much. Water should only be used that is warm (heated in the sun) and settled.
If there is excessive moisture, stop watering for several days. Resume watering only after the soil is completely dry.
If the cucumbers have not been fertilized for a long time, it is necessary to feed them with fertilizer containing nitrogen. These plants accept organic matter better than chemical feeds. To enrich the soil with nitrogen, you can use urea, yeast solution and wood ash.
Cucumber bushes that suffer from an abundance of sunlight should be shaded with something. Various available means are suitable for this: sheets of cardboard, bags, tree branches or special covering material.
A dense planting should be thinned out: pick off dry leaves, cut off vines and uproot entire bushes that shade others.
If chemicals (herbicides) have come into contact with the leaf blades, you need to bathe the plant in a large amount of water to wash off the chemicals.
When infected with fungal diseases, you should first remove diseased leaves, lashes or entire bushes. Then treat with special biological agents such as Trichodermin, Planriz, Fitosporin. In advanced conditions, the chemical preparations Topsin-M and Previkur are more effective. You can spray the diseased plant with a medicinal mixture of Metronidazole and Streptomycin (1:1), dissolved in 5 liters of water.
Insect control measures include traditional methods (soap solution, infusion of onion peels or garlic), special biological insecticides (Fitoverm, Strela, Aktofit) and chemicals (Iskra, Intavir, Kinmiks).

Important! In small greenhouses and greenhouses, it is advisable to grow only one crop (cucumbers or tomatoes), since they have different moisture requirements. When grown together in a small space, the crop will most likely be lost.

Pests of cucumbers leading to yellowing of leaves and drying out: control measures

Cucumbers planted in open ground are often attacked by insects.

melon aphid

This is a dangerous pest that affects most vegetable crops. It is not easy to identify melon aphids on leaves due to their small size and green color. Most often, the insect infects the upper leaves of cucumber bushes. Aphids feed on the cell sap of plants, and therefore if you do not get rid of them, the bushes will wither. Insecticidal preparations will help clear cucumbers of pests.

Spider mite

A few weeks after planting, spider mites may appear on young seedlings. Adults are quite dangerous, as they can lay more than three hundred eggs on bushes within 4-5 days. Bushes on which spider mites are present dry out and become covered with cobwebs. You can eliminate pests using Fitoverm, Bitoxibacillin and colloidal sulfur.

Thrips

Some people believe that thrips only attack houseplants, but they are also found on vegetables. Most often, the insect is found on the leaf plate. Thrips cause the leaves of the bushes to turn yellow and dry out.

To ensure that pests begin to disappear from cucumbers, the plants are treated with a mixture of celandine and garlic. Spraying is carried out 3-4 times a week.

Shchitovka

People who decide to plant cucumbers periodically encounter scale insects. This pest is dangerous because it is quite difficult to detect. Juvenile scale insects are very small and therefore difficult to notice. Many people discover this insect only after the foliage has withered. A one-time treatment with insecticides will help get rid of scale insects.

Whitefly

The appearance of whiteflies on bushes is indicated by the following signs:

fragility of the stems, due to which they can break;
white sticky spots on leaves;
deformation of the sheet plate;
falling leaves.

You can eliminate whiteflies using a garlic solution with brilliant green. To prepare it, add 150 grams of chopped garlic to a half-liter container with hot water and brilliant greens. The solution is infused for 3-4 days, after which it is used to spray the bushes.

Sprout fly

If the plant is planted in open ground, it is often attacked by the sprout fly. The pest lays larvae on cucumber leaves, which feed on cell sap. Over time, bushes affected by the sprout fly dry out. To get rid of flies, cucumbers are sprayed with insecticides.

Folk recipes against withering

There are many folk recipes that will help solve the problem of wilting cucumber leaves in a polycarbonate greenhouse or open ground. For many, they are preferable because they are environmentally friendly and solve many other problems.

A composition based on hot pepper will help repel pests. 35 g of crushed pepper is mixed with 200 g of tobacco dust. The mixture is poured with a liter of hot water and left for 24 hours. Then add a little soap to the solution and treat the cucumber plantings.
Whey will help cope with fungal diseases. Add 1 liter of dairy product to 5 liters of water. Spray cucumber tops.
To combat various bacterial and fungal diseases, you can use another milk-based composition. To 10 liters of water add 1 liter of skim milk, 20 g of laundry soap shavings, 25 drops of iodine.
Leaves can be restored if they wither by treating them with a solution based on wood ash. 100 g of the substance is stirred in a bucket of boiling water and left for 24 hours. Then soap shavings are added and the cucumber tops are processed.
An infusion of potato tops can help. 350 g of chopped herbs are poured into 10 liters of hot water. Let it sit for a day, add soap and spray the beds.

If the disease is in an advanced stage, then it is better to use special chemicals.

How to revive wilted plants

When unfavorable weather conditions occur, the cucumbers will have to be additionally covered, and if there is a threat of frost, the area will have to be smoked.

Advice. If the plants are weakened and become sick with powdery or downy mildew, stop watering for a week, and then spray with a whey solution, add one teaspoon of copper sulfate per 10 liters of solution, and treat with Fitosporin, Ecosil or Epin.

If the leaves turn pale and droopy, feed the cucumbers with onion peel infusion, bread infusion, ash, or compost mash.

Thus, if you follow the requirements for growing cucumber seedlings: water and feed on time, plant correctly, maintain temperature conditions, respond to the appearance of diseases and pests, then fresh cucumbers will delight you until late autumn.

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Place of landing and diseases

Plants may be exposed to direct sunlight. Although they love light, direct sunlight is harmful to them. This is explained by an increase in the rate of moisture evaporation from the leaf surface. Cucumber bushes are trying to resist this. Their leaves curl into tubes, thereby reducing the area of evaporation. Cucumbers die in the sun, they simply dry out.
The seedlings do not receive sun and are in the shade. If the bed is closely planted, the bushes shade each other. When they grow, a situation is created in which some lashes find themselves completely without light. The leaves of cucumbers turn yellow and wither, as in the video.

Disease and insect pests are another common cause of wilted cucumber leaves. If we talk about diseases, then this is a symptom characteristic of fungal diseases. At the same time, the development of the disease and the impact of pests rapidly affect the plantings. If measures are not taken, the plant may die completely in a few days. Cucumbers in a polycarbonate greenhouse are also susceptible to pests.

If the leaves of cucumbers in a greenhouse wither, a thorough examination of the cucumber bushes will tell you what to do. Among the most common diseases are:

root rot;
fusarium;
white rot.

Diseases of cucumbers in the greenhouse and in the garden are similar, and their treatment is identical. With root rot, the lower foliage wilts and dries out, as in the photo, then the death of the entire bush occurs. If fusarium develops, the upper part of the plant withers and the lower part of the stem rots. If white rot develops, the foliage becomes very soft and brown spots appear on the stem. Subsequently the foliage falls off. The most common problem with the development of fungal diseases occurs in those cucumber bushes that grow in greenhouses. This is explained by the favorable conditions in the greenhouse for the development of fungi in the vines of cucumbers.

Note!

The most active insect pests of cucumbers are melon aphids and spider mites. Aphids behave secretly. This insect lays its eggs on the back of the leaves; they become lethargic, dry out and die. Spider mites also prefer the underside of leaves. There they build their mini-webs.

Signs of seedling disease

There are six main signs that indicate that cucumbers are beginning to die.

Leaves turn yellow and dry out

The most common symptom is the appearance of yellowness on the leaf blade. Most often, this problem occurs due to an attack by tobacco whitefly. This small insect is a carrier of many viral diseases.

Often the leaves begin to dry out and turn yellow in self-pollinating parthenocarpic varieties. Drying of the foliage leads to deterioration of fruiting and further death of the seedling.

Thinning and drying of the stem

Drying of cucumber seedlings is accompanied by drying out and thinning of the stems. Such signs begin to appear if seedlings become infected with root rot, which appears due to improper care of planted seedlings. The stem may dry out due to:

sudden changes in temperature;
using cold water for irrigation;
lack of fertilizing.

Curling leaves

Wilting of seedlings, accompanied by leaf curling, occurs due to insufficient moisture. Plants consume a lot of moisture, which leads to yellowing and curling of the foliage. First, yellow spot develops on the leaves located on the lower branches. However, the yellowness gradually spreads to the adjacent sheets above.

Developmental delay without noticeable reasons

Another sign of the gradual wilting of cucumbers is the slow development of each stem of the bush. The bushes begin to develop more slowly than healthy cucumbers. This negatively affects plant growth, as well as the speed of fruit ripening. Delayed development of bushes can occur at any stage of vegetable growth.

The roots of the seedlings die

The death of the root system is associated with the development of fungal diseases that appear due to waterlogging of the soil. Due to the large amount of moisture in the soil, fungal bacteria develop, which gradually penetrate the roots. This leads to yellowing of the foliage, as well as death of the roots.

Cucumbers die after germination

There are cases when cucumbers begin to die immediately after the first shoots appear. This happens if you plant seeds that are not disinfected. Such seeds contain pathogens that are activated after germination of the seed.

The leaves of the cucumbers have drooped. Six reasons for drooping cucumber leaves

Delicate and capricious cucumbers. It would seem that everything has been done for their well-being. However, it happens that you come to the greenhouse, and there is a sad picture - the lower leaves have dried up, the upper ones have a loss of turgor, the fruits have stopped growing altogether.

Something didn’t sit well with our “green friends.” Most likely, the reason lies in the growing conditions, more precisely in the temperature regime, and even more precisely in the sharp difference in day and night temperatures. When a hot day gives way to coolness at night.

Garden Grrrl / Flickr.com

The cucumber loves warmth and any decrease in temperature is disastrous for it. A few such sudden changes and you can forget about the harvest. Monitor the temperature, because if on the soil surface +15°C and below is stress for the plant, below +10°C – death is possible.

Well-developed cucumber vines with large leaves are especially affected. This “disagreement” between quickly warming air and “slow” soil becomes noticeable during the day in sunny weather. This happens because moisture is rapidly evaporated by the leaves, and the root system in cold soil cannot cope with the water supply. Problems begin with loss of turgor, then growth stops, the plant weakens, it is affected by diseases in the form of rot, and death is often observed.

What to do to prevent cucumber leaves from wilting

It is easier to prevent problems than to spend time, effort and money fixing them. Therefore, you need to know what preventive measures can be taken against leaf wilting.

You can warm up the seeds before planting and soak them in special solutions to strengthen and grow.
The top depleted layer of soil in greenhouse beds needs to be changed once every year or two.
It is better to water the beds with water that has settled during the day. It is recommended to install a drip irrigation system in the greenhouse. This will keep the soil moist throughout the day.
Cucumbers are not “friends” with zucchini and tomatoes, since their cultivation requires different conditions. Therefore, you should not plant them next to each other.
If the plants were sick during the previous planting, for the next one it is necessary to disinfect the soil with potassium permanganate or change the soil.
To avoid burns, you need to tie the lashes so that the leaves do not touch the walls of the greenhouse.
Mandatory care rules include loosening the soil, plucking bushes and weeding.
Crop rotation, that is, planting in a new bed every year, will help improve the harvest.
A layer of mulch on the beds will retain heat, moisture and help avoid diseases.

How to keep picked cucumbers from wilting

There are several approaches to preserving cucumbers:

Maintaining a certain temperature regime when storing in a polyethylene bag, plastic container or cling film: +1...+2 °C – allows you to keep cucumbers fresh for 20 days; +4…+8 °C – 15 days; +15 °C – 1 week.
Dry and washed fruits can be stored for a long time (up to six months) in glass jars from which oxygen has been removed (by using a wick or a burning candle).
In order to preserve vegetables for 4-8 weeks, egg white can be used, which is applied to the cucumber surface and, when dried, forms a film that protects the fruit.

Read the article about whether it’s worth doing this or whether it’s better to plant them in separate places.

Thinning of the stem

Upon inspection, you found laid down seedlings. Examine the plant in more detail. If you find thinning of the stems in the form of constrictions of the stem, this is a fungal infection - root rot of cucumbers , most often caused by a violation of the growing conditions most favorable for seedlings. Why do cucumber seedlings fall:

Frequent excess fertilizing with mineral fertilizers or mullein;
Sudden changes in daily temperature;
Abundant watering or watering with cold water.

These reasons cause wateriness and thinning of the seedling stem under the cotyledon leaves, followed by lodging of the seedlings. The culprit of the damage is a fungus - the causative agent of root rot of cucumbers.

Are cucumber seedlings falling? What to do?

Do not plant plants in one place every year . The fungus can survive in the soil. Change the soil or treat the soil before planting by watering with a pink solution of potassium permanganate, heated to a temperature of 65-70 degrees.

A control measure is to reduce the volume of irrigation , especially during periods of sharp changes in daily temperatures. Limit the amount of fertilizer you apply . Water the seedlings with warm water in the evening.

It is recommended to remove the soil from the affected stems and sprinkle ash, clean sand, and peat around the stem.

What to do if cucumber seedlings turn yellow?

So, the cucumber seedlings have turned yellow: you don’t know what to do, since this is your first time encountering this phenomenon, or you are completely new to growing vegetables. Let's figure out how to prevent further yellowing of plants to the point of drying out.

Seedlings are sensitive to potassium deficiency. If a summer resident does not monitor the development of plants, he will first get yellow leaves and then irregularly shaped cucumbers. To eliminate these shortcomings, it is necessary to feed cucumbers with complex fertilizers.

Cucumber is a water-loving plant. But watering should be moderate using pleasantly cool water. Watering seedlings with cold water inevitably leads to disease.

If the farmer prefers to place the seedlings on pieces of foam plastic, he must first cover the substrate with film. Seedlings on the balcony need good lighting, so you will have to work hard and provide lighting.

When feeding seedlings with fertilizers, it is necessary to balance the doses of applied substances and prepare solutions without exceeding the ammonia concentration. If plants are experiencing nitrogen deficiency, they should be fertilized with Azogran and Vermistim.

How to save seedlings

Before deciding what to do with diseased seedlings, you need to establish the reason why pepper seedlings disappear. First of all, it is necessary to conduct a visual inspection of the plants for the presence of rot or fungus.

When blackleg is damaged on dead seedlings, the naked eye can detect a dark constriction at the base of the stem and its drying out.

If no signs of disease are found, the cause is sought in the mistakes that even experienced gardeners make when caring.

Disease Control

Seedlings that have fallen and withered due to disease are immediately removed, and the soil is sprayed with fungicides. Previkur, HOM, Ordan are suitable for these purposes. The drugs are allowed to be used when the seedlings have 4-6 true leaves. Processing can also be carried out per sheet.

If the soil is very waterlogged, sprinkle it with wood ash to draw out excess liquid. This folk remedy also inhibits the further development of fungi.

Eliminating care errors

If seedlings are placed on a window, they must be removed from there and moved to a warmer place. Pepper seedlings should also not be placed too close to radiators, as the heat will cause them to dry out and die.

As soon as ideal temperature conditions are created (from +23 to +25 degrees during the day and +16 - +18 at night), the seedlings are provided with additional lighting with phytolamps. Ideally, plants are illuminated for 2-3 hours in the morning and the same amount in the evening.

Pepper does not like dense soil, so it must be loosened after each watering. If, after moistening, the soil sticks together and forms a crust, adding Vermiculite or Biohumus will help correct the situation. Gradually, the seedlings will be reanimated and will stop falling and dying.

Seedlings should be watered no more than once every 3-4 days with settled water at room temperature. If it happens that the soil is too flooded, you must sprinkle the soil on top with ash and stop moistening until the soil is completely dry.

Determining the Root of the Problem

Cucumber leaves can say a lot about your nutrition.

The essence of the problem can be determined by a number of characteristic signs.

Thus, yellowish veins of flaccid leaf blades indicate a lack of iron , and in the case of very young plants - copper .
Yellow leaf edges are a sign of magnesium and potassium deficiency . The wilting of the green mass during the flowering period indicates a low boron content in the soil.
Violation of the watering regime can be diagnosed not only by wilted foliage, but also by roots that have appeared on the surface.
Withering, accompanied by rotting - a signal of too much moisture.
Rotting and thinning of the stem of seedlings at the border of earth and air is a symptom of the development of black leg.