Kitchen Garden Forum

It starts at the bottom leaves and last year I did nothing. My cucumber plants eventually died off. This year I'm having Kiwanos and they were looking perfectly healthy untill now that something seems a little bit off about the bottom leaves. It's the same thing that happened to my cucumbers last year, except overall they still look very healthy. No growth stagnation, no different/other signs of a disease or something. I think it's a nutrient deficiency but which one?

If you don't know much about kiwanos, they are member of the cucumber family so perhaps you know about cucumbers having the same thing happening?

What is happening here and how to cure this? An acquaintance said it's nothing to be worried about but this really concerns me. Was thinking about potassium deficiency but not sure...

When I saw the blotches on the first leaf ai initially wondered about scorching but seeing the second ohoto ai,m not too sure. I wonder if in your enthusiasm you could possibly have over watered? Could you try letting the compost dry out a little, keep the pot in a dish and only water from the bottom?

Are there signs of any tiny bugs moving around on the leaves or on the surface of the soil? Presumably you used fresh potting compost and not from a bag that may have been 12 months old or more? If you have any chicken manure pellets you could try crumbling up a few on the surface but I would imagine at this early stage there is probably still enoughnourishment in the compost.

That's the problem with being a gardener. Often you never really discover the root cause of a problem. It,s a case of trial and error!

You do sometimes find with cucumbers of courgettes that early leaves and flowers go manky and die off then suddenly the plant seems to stabilise itself start growing steadily.

I think you're right about watering too much, I feared that they would dry out but after all, originally they do grow in a desert kind of environment. I already used a tiny bit of potassium fertilizer just to be sure. Thanks for your reply!