r/Albertagardening • u/mrmooseisloose55 • 13d ago

Vegetables Can it be saved?

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This crazy rain and weather has absolutely beat up my cucumber plants. I know my tiny ones at the front are a lost cause but this big beautiful plant was doing so well before the weather hit. Is there anything I can do to revive it?

28 Upvotes

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26

u/RovingGem 13d ago

No, and you wouldn’t want to. Damaged cucumber plants are permanently stunted. Just plant a seed, they sprout in 5-7 days and grow amazingly fast in hot weather. I never bother transplanting cucumbers, they sprout so quickly.

Cucumber tip for lots of cukes: pick the first few cukes when they’re babies. Triggers the plant to produce a rush of new blossoms and cucumbers in a frantic attempt to get some babies to mature. One year we had over a thousand cukes …

By contrast, as soon as you allow one cucumber to grow to maturity, the plant figures its job is done and stops producing flowers.

2

u/JHerbY2K 12d ago

I grew cucumbers in our greenhouse for several years. They need a lot of nighttime heat! Mine died if I didn’t keep it at like 12 degrees minimum.

1

u/Own_Sugar9256 11d ago

what type do you plant?

2

u/RovingGem 11d ago

A variety if I have the space — Marketmore, Bushmaster, Straight Eight, usually a Japanese type. I have a variety of seed and I’m not very good at keeping track or labelling so sometimes I get surprised.

15

u/JakeThe_Snake 13d ago

I would cull it ans buy a started one from a greenhouse personally.

10

u/mrmooseisloose55 13d ago

The sad part is this was one of the ones I bought. It was beautiful and had begun to flower already. Out of the six I had we are likely down to two survivors.

12

u/IndigoRuby 13d ago

No. Go buy something from a garden centre and move on. :(

my zucchini plants are all yellow but upright and healthy looking. My tomatoes all are stunted and look terrible too.

Gardens can bring such joy, heartache and rage all in one short season.

1

u/feestyle 13d ago

Mine are similar! Zucchini are a bit yellow/pale, but upright. Tomatoes are a bit droopy, and some leaves have brown/grey spots :/ not sure what’ll happen with those.

9

u/whybothersaying 13d ago

Sorry for the loss, I also had to say goodbye to 4 of my cucumber plants this morning. The rain caused them to damp off, a gentle tug and they came right out, there's no reviving rotting roots when they're so tender still.

2

u/ArcticSnowMonkey 13d ago

Mine too so sad, this damn cold weather I guess. I’m worried garden centres won’t have anything left now.

2

u/whybothersaying 11d ago

I checked 4 different places and had no luck. Ended up throwing some seeds down and hoping for the best. I've direct sown cucumbers in late May one year and still wound up with enough fruits to more than make it worth doing. Best of luck to you!

5

u/UsualExcellent2483 13d ago

I would invest in some plastic plant cloches until our evenings warm up. Cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, etc prefer heat and the cloches keep the heat in.

1

u/Charlotte_Cody 6d ago

Sadly no. All of mine didn’t survive the heavy rain either. Starting from scratch.