Well it’s in the title… They were growing great but in the last days or so the leaves started wilting. They always showed some yellowing and I thought about nitrogen deficiency so I fed them with slurry but without success… Any tips?

  • Sockenklaus@sh.itjust.worksOP
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    4 months ago

    No I don’t think so. In German it’s called “Jauche” and is a natural fertilizer that you get when you let plant parts (often nettle or goutweed) sit in water for a few weeks.

    I thought the drainage of the soil was good enough. It’s potting soil mixed with ~ 10 % perlite for drainage. The pots I use are textile pots with good drainage and I try to wait wi watering until the soil is at least 3 - 5 cm dry.

    Maybe you got have a point with your suspicion that the container maybe limiting the plants… Next year I’ll definitely plant my cucumber plants in a raised bed.

    • feedum_sneedson@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      That probably won’t be a good enough fertiliser. My cucumbers needed watering every day in the heat. 10% perlite will aerate the soil but is unlikely to change the drainage very much. Just a few things to think about. Good luck!

      • Sockenklaus@sh.itjust.worksOP
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        4 months ago

        Thanks for you thoughts! I didn’t know perlite didn’t do anything for drainage. I honestly thought aeration and drainage were more or less two sides of the same coin.

        • feedum_sneedson@lemmy.world
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          4 months ago

          It will help, but depending on what’s in the organic part of the mix you could put perlite in at 50% and still find it was going anaerobic at the bottom of the pot, particularly with the new peat-free mixes. The best way I’ve heard it explained is that if you took a bucket of Angel Delight (like American “pudding”), how much grit would you need to add before it drained properly? A lot of these newer retail mixes just wet out into a slurry with zero structure to it. Making a free-draining mix is actually a huge challenge.