Xref: kermit rec.gardens:230490


I planted cucumber starts in a large container, filled with commercial
potting mix (it might have been Miracle Grow potting soil). This is
outside, in a full sun spot in my back yard. The starts did fine for about
2 days, then began to wither up and die. They never even tried to climb up
the cage I provided. Now they are almost dead. The withering started as
the outside of the leaves turned brown, and worked it's way into the rest of
the plant.

Any ideas what might cause this? I've given up hope on these plants, but
want to prevent this from happening again.

TIA, Shannon
Most likely one of the myriad root rots or damping off . The striped cucumber
beetle will also do a number on emerging plants, but they usually hand around
to noticed. The root rots are intensified in cold wet soil, If your containers
do not have good drainage, ther is a high probabilty of root diseases,