This may sound crazy, but my plants only look like that during the hottest part of the summer, and less sun intensity would be welcomed. How many hours of direct sunlight do these plants get?

EG

Well... they are on the S-E side of the garage wall. Its winter there also 70-80f and I would guess 6-7 hours.

Hmm....that's right on track for good growth. Even with the damaged leaves - I honestly don't think you have anything to worry about just yet. The rest of the leaves look great, and it's common for mine to do the same way each year...

EG

hmm... still not convinced here haha. I mean the holes and the sides of the leaves ... seems that something is nibbling on it? Or?

and of course I am refering tot the cucumber (a bit less, the tomato) for now. The Pepper looks very nice.

The leaves with holes indicate that something is chewing on them. (My guesses: Caterpillars, slugs and/or snails.)

You need to look at the leaves every day, top and bottom surface. Perhaps even at night. Then flick the problem critter(s) into soapy water.

Some of the plants look a little pale overall. Are you fertilizing? If not, start.

As was said, your peppers look very good.

Look under leaves for insects or a worm. I use eye magnifiers to find the little critters.
I have had good luck with the product Super Thrive as a supplement for weak plants and general maintenance for healthy plants. Home Depot carries it, also amazon. I dust some of my veggies with garden dust if needed to control bugs or some fungus. Good for roses, too.
Neem oil is another option for sickly plants. It really helps to know what you are fighting first before treating.
Just in case , spread out the healthy plants from those that look not so healthy. Keep a diary of what's going on in your garden. Some years certain plants don't do well even with best intentions.
Hope things improve soon.

cause I am not around at the moment, i added some slow release fert 20-20-20 on top of the soil in the hope the top sprinkler and rain would do its job.

My caretaker could fert extra. I have an all purpose plant food from miracle grow?

Ps.. i added a new pic from water from above. I was wondering if they got to much. (Every morning 8 minute shower)

and of course thanks to all for this help and input :) Mucho Appreciated :)

Jean - at first glance, it appears as if a leaf-chewing caterpillar has chewed some of the edges of tomato plant leaves, but I blew the photo up, and it looks like the leaf is just curled/burnt. Do you see the same thing?

they are all in tiny containers, with sterile potting soil.

Here's my take from your pics---

They're sitting on concrete -- lift them off the concrete-- winter in the Bahamas? I imagine the concrete can still get hot, especially(as Glib mentioned), in those small pots. Bricks or wood make a nice buffer.

Cucumber (1st pic)-- looks stressed.. Possible root damage or too small a pot. My cuke leaves don't droop like that until the temps are high 80's minimum. Looks like sunscald or some type of burn on some of the foliage.

Tomato -- looks ok for the most part, but looks like a bit a fert or frost(highly unlikely?), on the edges of the leaves. Was that manure fully composted?

Cuke(2nd pic) -- Sure it isn't birds pecking those holes? Different part of the world, but I never have much foliage damage from INSECTS(caterpillars, slugs, etc) on my cucurbits. More foliage sunburn.

Peppers--- look great... BUT.............

I'm with Glib, in your climate(where you can grow these veggies year round), you need to get all of them in 15 gallon containers! Or the ground. Let them reach their potential!

Good luck.

Kevin

This post was edited by woohooman on Mon, Jan 12, 15 at 23:39

And an other :(

Dear everybody

All you say seems acceptable.
Concrete sounds logical
These pots are 5 gallon. Is that really to small? Cause I can not by anything here and have to ship/import them in.
Second i guess with 3 x 15 gall pots my 6x8 greenhouse is full haha.

Ground is difficult cause soil is very poor here (Sandy )and as mentionend before the animals just eat it and the sun gets to brutal soon.
Anyhow
New pics only 3 days later and I assume this is the end of line for these baby's ?

Menure is composted btw

and if using 15-20 gall pots, what is best to buy. The smart soft once or just plastic round?

see link amazon.

ps... can some1 point me out to a link here that discusses container potting for greenhouse and what soil to put in there?

Here is a link that might be useful: amazon pots

Have you heard about a book "square foot gardening"?
He gives the ratios to build soil for container gardening. I am in southern Florida where the soil needs a lot of amending. I think you would be more successful with the square foot method. Keeping out critters that could eat your harvest is another thread. It's too hot for cucumbers. Mine died early in November but last spring they did fine. It was cooler weather then.
We haven't really had a winter so far this year.
Also I have used grow bags for small container gardens. One had the good cucumbers. Another had garlic and herbs. Bought them on amazon.

@Soflay9, no have not, will look it up on Amazon, thanks :)

Ps.. thats why i build a greenhouse with an evaporated cooler system. Its not quite finished but next trip it will. I did a test. WIthout I had 100+ temp and with the system running it came down to 80-85 and that must be okay.

See link:

Here is a link that might be useful: Greenhouse

If the soil is very poor, long term, try to use hugelkultur. That involves quite a bit of one-off digging, but then your roots have something to latch onto.

Thanks
I just starter so everything is fresh out if bags
Maybe too fresh :)

ItsJorgen:

5 gallon "should" be fine for cukes, and many varieties of peppers. But you live in a place where the season is LONG. So, I suggest larger because with the peppers, they'll outgrow 5's in no time.

Another problem is that they're black. All your veggies love warm temps, but not HOT. And a black pot will absorb a ton of sun(heat). Kind of too late now, but maybe in the future, paint them white. Or wrap in a kitchen trash bag. Soil temps over 95F and the plants will shut down until it gets cooler.

For larger pots, here's a few suggestions.

If money isn't an issue, get some half oak barrels. They'll handle even a tomato plant. Get's pricy filling them with potting mix, but maybe you can make your own. Al's 5-1-1 mix is good stuff, but you may not find components readily available in the Bahamas. Visit the container forum for more ideas and info.

If money's tight, find an independent nursery that deals with trees. They'll have used 10 and 15 gallon nursery pots and may just give you a bunch or sell them for a couple bucks a pop. Once again, they're usually black, so you'll have to find some way to moderate the soil temp.

Another idea to combat the poor soil--- build some raised beds a couple feet high. Then you can create your own great soil. A lot cheaper than most greenhouses.

Good luck.

Kevin

I agree with the heat on pots. I'm not sure if this was already mentioned: I loosely wrap my black plastic pots that are in direct sunlight with burlap to bounce the sun. It seems to keep the pots cooler. If the plant is stressed mites could have a devastating impact, but it's hard to tell. Mites are tiny creatures that love dry conditions and are found under leaves.

In the images posted Jan 13, 15 at 6:23, I see symptoms of drought-stress, as in insufficient water to the tops of the plants.

And lots of chewing damage between leaf veins. Or perhaps dead tissue fell out subsequent to a water shortage.

In spite of being in 5-gallon containers, those plants are severely undersized and struggling.

As for potting soil, I strongly advise you use a pre-formulated commercial product rather than try mixing your own. Wait to experiment with self-made mixtures until after you understand how to grow healthy plants.

Thanks for all the good tips. I ordered some 15 gal pots (soft sided)
I also will check the water control when I get back. It could be true that when watering from above the soil does not get wet.
Specialy when the leaves are blocking

An other question. I has been blowing pretty hard the last week. Can cukes handle wind?

Thanks for all the good tips. I ordered some 15 gal pots (soft sided)
I also will check the water control when I get back. It could be true that when watering from above the soil does not get wet.
Specialy when the leaves are blocking

An other question. I has been blowing pretty hard the last week. Can cukes handle wind?

Damn... I think I know what is eating the plants.

The last trip in december I was working outside the garage and the wall was covered with this bug. 20 or 30 was nothing.

I am not an expert on insects and as long as they do not bite me, i let them live.

But now after some searching it turns out this is a squash bug????? And I assume that they like cukes as well??

You'll get more info about the bug from others. Luckily, we don't get squash bugs.

BUT....... regarding watering overhead. Don't do it. None of your particular veggies like it.

Watering regimen for these veggies--

Toms--- water deeply and then let dry out "some" before watering deeply again.

Peppers-- water deeply and let dry out almost completely. Peppers will wilt in the midday heat, but if they recover in the cooler evening hours, hold off on watering deeply again.

Cukes -- water deeply, and keep evenly moist.

Kevin

Thanks Kevin on the watering tips
Can't wait to get back and start over :)

Don't know if that's what you have/had as Wikipedia says "Corizus hyoscyami subs. nigridorsum is present in Spain, Italy, Morocco and Tunisia."

Where in zone 10 do you live?

@Jean001a Southern Bahamas.
I just grabbed a pic from the net that looked like the once we have here. Could be different brand :D

We're a bit picky about images. We prefer to see *your* critter* rather than a picture found online. As beginners, all of have had problems matching up what we thought we saw in the garden.

But you're on the right track by asking questions. The next challenge is learning from that.
:)

I sure would have done that if I wasn't 6000miles away ;)
Will do next trip I couple weeks

Thanks :)

Jean's right. There's so many insects that look almost identical but are completely different species, some good some bad.

In the meantime, you may want to contact the local university with the image letting them know that yours is similar looking. They might be able to narrow it down.

Kevin

I made a temporary solution for the greenhouse (with help of some1 there) and put all plants inside.

In 2 weeks I will be back on the island and will take a closer investigation of what is crawling and flying around at night and will re-pot in 15gallon containers and reseed some veggies and start over with the info I you all gave me :)
Thanks so far !!

Jorgen

I found some information that might be helpful in the links below.
Then found a Bahamas specific gardening book but it's a little pricey.

http://www.amazon.com/Backyard-Gardening-Bahamas-The-Caribbean/dp/1562298208

http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/flgard/msg0115233328434.html?11

Thanks for the links :) going to order that book:)

:). Good luck with your project

Hullo again Jorgen,

There does seem to be some bug damage or something (maybe just powdery mildew or some other disease damage) but your plants also do not look very happy/nutrient fed. I have had success growing cucumbers in pots that size (maybe 1 or 2 per pot) but have had to water daily to keep them from drying out. And don't be shy about feeding your plants; with our huge rate of evaporation and watering we flush nutrients out the container soils regularly, some controlled release fertilizer or perhaps Miracle Grow water soluble (I use the 24-8-16 All Purporse) once every week or two would greatly help. Also look into the pH of the water you use to irrigate them with, most of our islands are built upon limestone and the water is pumped underground and full of dissolved bicarbonates/lime and raises the pH of the containers over time, locking out some nutrients to the plants. Some very good water pH threads are on here. You can use something like vinegar (I use sulfuric acid bought from the auto parts store as battery acid (which is sulfuric acid diluted to 33%) and further dilute that to 3.3%) to lower the bicarbonate content of your water before watering your plants, for this you will need to test the pH of your water and also test how much acid you need per amount of water. For example testing the pH of a gallon of the water after a tablespoon of vinegar. Here is a photo of one of my cucumbers grown in a maybe 3 or 4 gallon container over the summer with regular fertilizing (key here for good growth). It had 2 or 3 plants in this container, and two plants in a 1 gallon next to it that also put out good cucumbers :)

And some of the cucumbers (forgot I could add multiple photos to one post):

Very nice!

Your picture that you posted above, of the red bug with black spots is, er, a "black and red squash bug", otherwise known as a cinnamon bug. As noted above, that's Corizus hyoscyami. Yep, that's it. Not sure you want to know this, but it's a bug that is allegedly edible and delicious. They attack leaves, especially cucurbits.