Oh. ok. Much like the climate I'm in. was hoping you'd have let it go and see if any of the suggested remedies helped. Can always learn by failing. Good luck with the new ones. For what it's worth, SWC's sound great on paper(especially her in SoCal), but they sound like everything needs to be prefect to be effective. If I was to try one, I wouldn't use anything but the famed 5-1-1 mix discussed so frequently in the container forum. I would think that root rot might be a problem and the 5-1-1 is designed to eliminate that problem as much as possible. Healthy roots, healthy plant... in most cases. Kevin

Is every leaf on the plant showing brown patches or just the lower ones? I usually don't worry about lower leaves browning. When the plant is producing cucumbers it needs even more water, so could be water stress. Try mulching after your next watering.

Perhaps the caterpillar?

There are many possible problems. My first guess from your description of circumstances is salt damage. Salt builds up in soil from fertilizer and other sources, even the water you may use to irrigàte, and cucurbits are more sensitive than most other crops. If you continue to have poor growth after replanting you may need to switch areas or leach out the existing bed.