What did I do wrong to my cucumbers. They have basically looked like this the entire summer. I water as needed, I used the fertilizer shown once or twice throughout the summer. Now it was a extremely hot summer here in PA. But as stated I watered thoroughly when needed and extra on the hot days. Both cucumber plants did not produce much vegatables either. Maybe a total of 4 I was able to pick off. Advice/help







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Looks like you have them in a plastic tub instead of in the ground...
Also, I wonder how much sun they get next to that fence.

I really wouldn't expect too much from them in potting soil.

Maybe next year you can dig up a nice bed in the native soil instead of trying to use that tub.

Is there a possibility they get to much sun? Although the fence may make it seem that way, it gets a ton of sunlight all day. And I thought you could plant cucumbers in raised garden beds?

My definition of a raised garden bed may differ considerably from your definition.

How I would build a raised garden bed:
Get rid of the plastic tub...
With a shovel dig up an area at least 3 ft wide, 4 foot might be better... 6 foot long would be ok... longer is fine.

with shovel... dig the soil again, as deep as the shovel will go.
some people double-dig.
bring compost to bed... spread liberally on top of soil... plant.

I've not seen cucumbers get too much light... but there is a very good chance that the roots got too hot in that tub.

What are the dimensions of the tub? I've got two cucumber plants in a 24in round half wine barrel and they are doing pretty good. The cucumbers that are growing are oddly shaped but I've been told that's incomplete pollination. I'm not certain your growing container is the issue. How much are you watering them? A disease maybe?

I water them daily due to this extreme weather, but other then that. The bed has served me well. It's I believe like 48x24 I believe.

Maybe too much water? I know from personal experience that it can be easy to over water even in containers and even in this heat. I don't think the container itself is the issue, at least heat wise. What do you have for drainage holes or is it open to the ground like a raised bed would be?

Have they been like this pretty much the whole time, including early in the season? How often were you watering then?

They look like mine a couple of weeks ago. The problem was spider mites. I watered well enough, but those nasties love a dry leaf.
I shower the leaves in the evening now and give a seaweed spray every 2 weeks. I trimmed the most damaged leaves away. They're doing much better, new green growth and producing non-stop

Veggie plants don't need watering "as needed" they need watering deeply every single morning to keep them growing and producing. Pretty sure that's been your problem from the get-go. These are not house plants, and as long as there's good drainage, you absolutely cannot over-water them. They'll just grow more and produce more.

The color of the leaves also indicates a nutrient deficiency. Did you read the directions on the fertilizer package? If it's not a pelleted time-release fert, it needs to be applied regularly every second week, and more as the plants get bigger. Not more often, a larger amount. Bigger plant needs more food.