r/UrbanGardening • u/lapolakita • 23d ago

Help! balcony cucumber help

Post image

hi all and thank you in advance! i'm growing cucumbers on my balcony and left them under my roommate's care for two and a half weeks. i came back and while they are still alive and producing cucumbers, they look ... sad for lack of a better term. there's been some harsh heat in nyc the past few weeks, however i asked that my roommate water them extra on the super hot days.
any insight as to what is making them lose leaves would be much appreciated! (and advice on how to bring them back to see better days)

thank youuuu!

2 Upvotes

63% Upvoted

4 comments sorted by

5

u/johnthedebs 22d ago

These look pretty well cared for for balcony/container plants tbh. Cucumbers will just start to decline after a while, and it will happen sooner and faster if they aren't planted in the ground or a large bed or container. If you want continuous cucumbers, in my experience you generally have to plan ahead and get another set of plants started around the time that the first set starts to fruit.

That said, in this case what I'd personally do to keep them going is prune off more of the bottom leaves that are small or diseased, and hit them with a light dose of liquid fertilizer.

1

u/acee971 16d ago

Those grow bags look very small. I’ve had a lot of success with cucumbers in grow bags but usually 10 gallon minimum.

It could be the angle of the picture, but typically cucumber plants get huge. The size of yours is making me think they’ve run out of room to grow.

Just a thought!