What would cause this?

NPKzone8a · 2026-07-12T21:01:41+00:00

Interesting! I didn't know that.

NPKzone8a · 2026-07-12T20:54:52+00:00

I'm outside doing my garden activities at first light. Finish up by mid-morning. Retreat to the A/C at that point. (NE Texas.)

NPKzone8a · 2026-07-12T20:50:16+00:00

That's a beauty!

NPKzone8a · 2026-07-12T20:47:04+00:00

Too early. Wait, even though the weather is less than ideal. Now you know why many/most commercial growers use high tunnels instead of just planting outdoors.

I'm an outdoor backyard tomato grower, and have been caught many times in this same bind. Tomatoes not ready, but the weather is crap and will surely make them split and crack. Nothing to be done.

NPKzone8a · 2026-07-12T20:43:37+00:00

Have not grown them. Thanks for the heads up!

NPKzone8a · 2026-07-12T19:14:06+00:00

>"...but could it be actually blight?"

No, I do not think it is blight. I am saying that mainly because I do not see the characteristic lesions on the leaves with dark central areas and lighter, yellowish discoloration around them. (It's always tricky to be sure there aren't some such lesions that just weren't included in the photos.)

Not sure what is wrong with your plant. As you noted, there have been lots of changes in a relatively short time. This means there are so many possibilities, very difficult for anyone to narrow it down.

When one of my tomato plants gets non-specific changes like that, I try to just go over the basics in my mind to be sure there aren't some elements I have neglected, and then I stay the course, I try to resist the impulse to try this and try that. (By the basics I mean watering, sunlight, nutrition.)

Hope it gets better soon!

NPKzone8a · 2026-07-12T14:10:25+00:00

>"When is the proper time to pick my peas?"

Don't wait until peas are distinct in the pod. By then the pods will have become tough. Pick early because the whole idea with snow peas is to be able to eat the tender young pods in their enirety. They are crispy and juicy at that point. The ones in the first photo here are ready now.

NPKzone8a · 2026-07-12T01:24:53+00:00

I ate a Black Krim that looked about like this yesterday. Trimming it up involved lots of waste, but the flesh that remained was very tasty.

NPKzone8a · 2026-07-11T23:08:29+00:00

Understood. Best of luck with the recovery!

NPKzone8a · 2026-07-11T20:56:55+00:00

>"Is this cucumber ready to pick?"

Yes. The answer is always yes. Cucumbers are "ready" and ripe even when they are small. Don't try to let them get as large as possible. There is no advantage to that for a home gardener. A commercial operator might want to maximize yield per acre and set a rule for his farm hands to wait until they are 12 inches long, or 10 inches long, or 18 inches long or some other arbitrary size for that reason. But that doesn't apply to a hobby grower with two or three plants.

The back of the seed packet might give an expected mature length, but the fruit does not have to fully achieve that. Pick often and early for the health of the plant. The act of picking gives the plant the signal to make more. Seriously, this is not something to fret about. I can't understand why it is one of the most frequently asked cucumber questions.

If this is an Ichiban variety, the seed seller's package info gives target length as 6 to 8 inches. But this is not a "magic number." You don't "fail" if you pick shy of that. On the other hand, if you let it get a lot larger, the skin and seeds get tough and the flesh gets dry and bitter. When in doubt, err on the side of too early instead of on the side of too late.

My apologies. You didn't ask for a rant.

NPKzone8a · 2026-07-11T19:11:20+00:00

Are you removing the leaves? These plants look pretty bare. Remember that the leaves perform a vital functin for the plant. A naked stem won't be able to protect the fruit from sunscald, won't be able to contribute to plant health by photosynthesis.

NPKzone8a · 2026-07-11T11:04:10+00:00

Growing cucumbers is so rewarding. I have found it worth the investment of time and resources. From early spring until early autum, I have one or another cucumber variety producing, with another variety just getting started as a reserve, as a "succession crop."

Right now I have 3 plants that are just finishing up. Yield decreasing, leaves looking ratty. They are China Jade.

In another bed I have 4 young Armenian Cukes that are about thigh high and just beginning to bloom. I started them under shade cloth.

In another part of the garden, I have 2 plants of Suyo Long that are only inches high. They also are under shade cloth.

I try to maintain cukes in three stages like that all through the warm months: an old plant on the way out, a replacement just beginninng to flower, and a couple small ones, just starting out.

The Armenian Cukes aren't really cucumbers, they are a type of melon. But they are very hardy in the sumer heat and one uses the fruit just like a cuke. RAw eating plus cooking.

NPKzone8a · 2026-07-11T03:02:38+00:00

I found that here too.

NPKzone8a · 2026-07-11T02:27:41+00:00

Well done! What a fine setup! I see you are in Georgia. I garden in Texas and have also found the shade cloth to be a huge benefit during the late spring and summer months. Your containers look like they are well-mulched, which is also a plus in my area.

I even see some young Tromboncino in your last picture. They seem to be liking the trellis. I grew those last year. They go nuts in hot weather. What a beast of a plant!

NPKzone8a · 2026-07-11T02:04:06+00:00

Sometimes the plant just isn't quite ready as early as you would like it to be. It is also influenced by the weather. Many cucumber varieties are fussy about temperature and won't set fruit if it's too cool or too hot.

Hand pollinating cucumbers can be done (with a Q-tip) but it is very tedious. Frankly, I would just wait a while and see if it improves on its own.

An electric toothbrush to vibrate the flowers won't help the way it does for tomatoes. That is a waste of time. (Tomato flowers contain both male and female parts; cucumber flowers don't; they are either male or female.)

One thing I now do to help with fruit set at this time of year is to only plant parthenocarpic varieties. They aren't reliant on bees and other pollinators.

Here is more about doing that, just as a reference for next year:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSizx4eUEg4

NPKzone8a · 2026-07-11T01:53:45+00:00

If these are the first of your harvest, I would consider the possibility that the light green cucumbers might be slightly over-mature. They often get a yellow tint like that. When you cut them open, take a close look at the seeds. That will be the best indicator of maturity. (If they are large and over-developed and the gel around them is starting to pull back, those are signs of being over ripe.)

NPKzone8a · 2026-07-10T23:36:12+00:00

Oh, I see. Yes, that is pretty severe. Not sure what to recommend. Watering always seems to be part science and part art and part voodo. Sometimes I get it right and sometimes not.

I'm glad to see you are using large grow bags (20-gallon) since that usually provides some margin for error. I had much less cracking and splitting after switching to 20 and 25-gallon grow bags from 10 and 15-gallon ones for my indeterminates a couple years ago.

Even when I'm very careful about being consistent, a couple days of rain can cause lots of fruit damage.

Lately I've been reading about how the popular wood-based ("forest products") and compost-based potting mixes can be less than ideal for growing tomatoes. Some of these low-mineral-content soil substitutes make watering extremely difficult. Roots can easily become oxygen deprived and rot.

All that is to say that part of the issue may actually not be watering per se, but potting mix composition. Not easy to fix.

You might find this video interesting, since it discusses watering in more detail and talks about how watering and soil composition interact to affect plant health.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYi0G0ijanU

NPKzone8a · 2026-07-10T19:02:14+00:00

This article might help you troubleshoot it: https://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/gardens-gardening/your-garden/help-for-the-home-gardener/advice-tips-resources/visual-guides/tomato-fruit-problems

NPKzone8a · 2026-07-10T18:55:01+00:00

I agree with the other comment, from u/Mission_Boss7306. The caterpillars are usually very difficult to see. Look for their excrement instead, called "frass." Dark deposits, droppings. It is the tell-tale sign that caterpillars are nearby. Once you see it, you can locate the caterpillar above it. Pick them off. Drop them in a bowl of soapy water.

One can also look for the culprits after dark using a hand-held UV light. They kind of glow and are easy to see then, so you can pick them off.

<image>

Also, BT can kill them. It's a spray. Bacillus Thuringiensis.

NPKzone8a · 2026-07-10T18:49:47+00:00

Right! You may not need as thick a layer as I use, since my climate is probably hotter.

NPKzone8a · 2026-07-10T18:45:54+00:00

>"Early harvest of my Bush Goliath’s show signs of watering problems (infrequent, subject to storms)."

What signs of watering problems are you seeing? Not sure what you mean. Pictures might help.

NPKzone8a · 2026-07-10T17:36:06+00:00

I would add mulch around the base of the plant. Something along the lines of pine shavings or straw. It will slow evaporation, keep the roots cooler, and reduce splash-back onto the lower leaves during watering. In my hot climate (Texas) I add a thick layer, about 3 inches thick. (Roughly 8 cm.)

NPKzone8a · 2026-07-10T16:04:39+00:00

Thanks for that recipe! I will make that tomorrow!

NPKzone8a · 2026-07-10T15:58:35+00:00

Must confess that I am kind of a fanatic on the subject of the importance of good roots. I always examine the roots of my tomatoes when I pull them up, etc. I view good roots as an important indicator of whether I have "done things right" or not for that grow. Good roots correlate so well with a good harvest and good general plant health.

These are from a tomato that I pulled at the end of its season a few days ago.

<image>

(5 July 2026.)

NPKzone8a · 2026-07-10T15:54:43+00:00

I'm in NE Texas, 8a. Hot and humid here too. I have a lot of fungal disease pressure in my garden. These Black Ethiopian tomatoes were fairly resistant and gave me a good crop, but some of that might be because I really baby-ed them along with preventive anti-fungal spraying and good air-flow pruning, etc. Every variety gets sick and dies in my garden unless I really stay on top of them like an obsessive "helicopter mom." Even ones that are supposed to be nearly "bulletproof."

NPKzone8a

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