Why are my cucumbers dying? How do I grow amazing cucumbers?

While your cucumber plants may enjoy being read excellent hubs, they also need a few other things, such as plenty of sun, adequate moisture and some fertilizer to boot.

What can kill them quickly is too much sun, too much water and pests in the garden, such as slugs, which love to much on them until all that is left is a green nub. How sad.

I agree with everyone that you need disease free plants, so buy potted cucumber plants from a nursery you trust. Alternatively, get seeds from reputable sellers, such as Park Seeds. Next, plant them in amended soil- which includes the fertilizer and mulch materials that will help them grow and hold moisture in during dry spells. If you're not sure what to do in this regard, buy a potting mix, such as Expert Gardener, and make the mounds for your plants out of this. Plant them where they'll have a little shade during the day. Finally, water them only when they need it- and do this either in the early morning or in the evening so they get the full benefit. Too much water will result in scraggly yellow plants or ones that die of root rot.

The cucumbers we had were in full sun and the sandy soil was mixed with horse manure and they did excellent. They started dying off when we had over 22 inches in a two weeks span and it over-saturated the roots of the plants.

We have now started some more plants from seeds in containers at the present and once big enough will replant in the garden.

Cucumber plants love shady areas with a bit of sunlight in the morning or in the afternoon. If you planted your cucumbers directly under the sun, construct a sort of shading roof. Something with a net covering to screen the heat from your plants. Also, water in the early morning or in the late afternoon. Hope this short explanation answered your question. :)

Cucumber sandwiches will always remind me of my grandmother, my mother’s mother, my nanny. Our next door neighbour back when I was much younger, used to grow cucumbers, my father focused on tomatoes, big... keep reading →

You are neglecting them and dying is just their way of telling you so. Cucumbers are very sensitive to light, heat, wind, soil ph, humidity and every degree of kindness. Check the underside of the leaves and look for mildew or pest infestation. Queen Cleo is right. If you are unsure where in your garden you should plant any plants... the width of the leaves gives you the clue. Wide leaves - semi light.. Narrow - full light.

If you want to ensure that you continue to grow amazing cucumbers; grow them from your own seeds. In that way you avoid introducing the cross contamination which occurs in many commercial garden centers, but doesn't appear until you have nurtured the plants to the point that get really worried and ask everyone: "OMG, Why are my cucumbers dying?" Apparently you can improve your success rate by reading them a well written Hub each week.... Bon Chance.

All the answers can lead to weakened cukes. However, cucumber beetles are the likely culprit. The beetles munch on the leaves and by themselves wouldn't kill a healthy cucumber plant. However, the beetles are the vector (carrier) for the bacteria that causes cucurbits or cucumber wilt. The signs are first you see the beetles, then the leaves on your seemingly healthy cukes will begin to wilt, turn brown and soon the whole plant is dead.

I must be lucky then...or so I thought.

Our cucumbers have been growing pretty well. We have them in a greenhouse and water them every day. We have had to add supports to them and you will find that they wrap their little twines around the supports.

A few weeks back, loads of little cucumbers started to appear, one of them shining through as being the biggest. So we wait until yesterday to pick it (as it was about a foot long). To our disappointment it tasted like sour grapes, the damn thing wasn't ready!!

Good luck with your cucumbers though! Just make sure they are fully ripe or you will get a BIG disappointment!

I agree with Keith S. It is probably the combination of the cucumber beetle and bacterial wilt. I have had trouble with it for a long time. My plants start off just great, I even get lots of cucumbers of the vines and then...the next time I go to the garden, one of the leaves on a plant has totally withered away. This withering proceeds a couple of leaves at a time until the whole plant is gone.

To keep cucumber beetles of you plants, dust them with diatomaceous earth. It is not a pesticide, it kills the bugs by scratching through the exoskeleton and they just dry out. That has helped me keep my cucumber plants going all season.

If you grow your Cucumbers below other plants such as Tomatoes they will provide beneficial shade. Cucumbers dislike really hot sun.

Also they love lots of water, blood and bone, chook manure and liquid seaweed.

Also mulch these lovelies to keep their roots cool and moist.

Happy Gardening Marty

my cucmbers died last year...all of them..both times I planted. This year they are in direct sunlight and doing fine. The difference is I used a quality compost. Using your own seeds to avoid disease is good advice, but not so helpfull if all your cucumbers are dead...no seeds there..Try Johnny's Selected Seeds. They are gaurenteed and have loads of help on where/when/ how to plant.

You are not alone. My cucumbers are dying too and so are the cucumbers of persons far and wide, from what I hear.

I believe that cucumbers die because they are needy little veggies and require lots of attention which most people do not give them.

Do you read to your cuc's ?

Do you dress them in nice, clean clothes and send them off to school with a nice box lunch or do you just push them out the door and say 'good luck and don't come back until you've earned some cash for Momma!'

If so you are not fit to have cucumbers and should put them out for adoption.

Cucumber orphans are a wide-spread phenomenon in today's world and for just a few pennies a day you can sponsor a cucumber so that it too can have a life that all vegetables deserve.

Let's make a human chain this weekend across the world and together sing the praises of cucumbers. They are green and they have warts, yes, but they have just as much right to be here as any other tasty, (especially in vinegar and water) vegetable.

Maybe they are water-logged and full of seeds.

At the end of the summer, my grandfather's cucumbers went too seed.

Depending on where you live (like in NJ where I live) we have had a very wet summer thus far.

Check the Farmers Almanac as well.

Good luck

Lorrie