Trouble with cucumber plants

[binkster]

I've tried starting cucumbers from seed and from starter
plants and they all seem to wither and die before they get
going.  I'm in Seattle, so it's not too hot.  Several years
ago I had a bumper crop but nothing since then.  Any ideas
what might be going on?

[K8-EEE]

1. Was there anything weird on the leaves?

I had to use something on mine for white powdery mildew....they still have a bit of the spot on there but are going great guns, these were planted from seed in containers outside in March:



Did you look under the leaves for bugs? If you don't see anything it could be something funky in the soil. Have you grown anything there successfully before?

[binkster]

2. Nope - no bugs or mildew.

They just don't thrive and then fully wilt and die. I haven grown other things in that same spot, but maybe containers are the answer. Your plants look great.

[K8-EEE]

3. Isn't it a bitch when stuff just doesn't take???

I've had that "mystery" thing before.....I just told a friend the other day, she was saying "you have such a green thumb" I was like, "no not at all....but when I kill something I yank it out and try try again!"

[hippywife]

4. Nematodes, maybe?

Have you tried planting something else there, something that's not a cucurbit?

http://hgic.clemson.edu/factsheets/hgic2216.htm

[Blue Gardener]

5. Could be several things

Here is information from the Iowa State University Extension Service

http://www.extension.iastate.edu/newsrel/2001/aug01/aug0110.html

[Lone_Star_Dem]

6. And no fungus is visible?

Hmm. If I were you I'd give it another shot in a different location and keep a row cover over them. I suspect you may have a cucumber beetle sneaking in and infecting the plants with bacterial wilt. One poke from his infected sucking tube is all it takes to spread the disease to your plants. Sometimes you never get the pleasure of even seeing, let alone killing, them. I lost an entire crop to this one year.

It may also be vine borers, but you'd see their damage near the base of the plant when you pull them out. They just took out a yellow straight neck squash of mine. I'm not having very good luck this year with my summer squashes. :(