Hi Katie, you know, what I can see in your photo could be a number of things. The plant looks small (undernourished), dry (water?), and like it may at this point have some disease or chemical burn (pesticides?). My cucumbers are always very healthy and I'm in the south too. They only suffer if they get downy mildew and even then they produce if I regularly spray organic fungicides. I grow mine on hills in well worked ground that has a lot of broken down organic matter in it (dry leaves, wood chips, straw, manure, kitchen scraps). I also start mine from seed. One doesn't need to buy cucumber, melon, or squash plants. They are so easy to start from seed and much less expensive. In any case, I think the main problem is the container. Cucumbers need to be grown on hills from seed (they resent transplanting) in nutrient dense, well worked soil. I guess I'm saying that I don't see much future for your cucumbers, though maybe someone else will chime in with some hope. Sorry and hope this helps... p.s. I've always been able to successfully grow peppers and eggplants in nutrient dense potting soil/large pots too (not cucumbers though).

I re-read your post, Sammy, and understand that you are looking for good soil. So do I, after the bagged EarthGro topsoil at HomeDepo killed my decade-old orange summer phlox, plus my peony, and put my Japanese Maple tree on life-support. Nastara, zone 5, informed me that this past summer's bagged soils were contaminated with Herbicide, resulting in complaints from farmers. I tested the pH of my soil, EarthGro's topsoil, and Menard's "American Countryside" brand. EarthGro's topsoil was the most alkaline (greenish blue in red cabbage juice), my pH of 7.7 native soil (professionally tested by EarthCo., turned blue in my red-cabbage juice test), and least alkaline is Menard's. I would place EarthGro's topsoil at pH of 8 and Menards pH of 7.5 or less. Moo Cow-manure is the worst, pH of 9, same color as baking soda in red cabbage juice. There was a post in the soil forum about the offensive odor of top soil from Lowe's. Actually stinky means good - because they haven't put lime in it to deodorize the soil, thus shooting up the pH to the 8 to 10 range. I'm buying Lowe's bagged soil this summer (I used it in the past and it didn't kill my plants). Menards' top soil is OK for pH, but it's loaded with weed seeds. My neighbor turned her lawn into a weed patch after using that stuff. The professional lawn company had to put lime plus other chemicals to kill her weeds. The best soil is what you make yourself with your own compost and you know what goes into it. Store-bought bagged soil often contain boiler-ash (#1 industrial waste) to make it pitch-black, plus biosolids (human waste)and lime to deodorize, thus raising the pH. Tapla, professor of horticulture, has a recipe of potting soil: 5-1-1 (5 parts ground composted pine mulch, 1 part perlite, and 1 part peat moss). Here's a clip of his recipe and below is the link to his website. It's the same ingredients recommended by Douglas Green, Ontario nursery - and the same ingredients listed in Ball's planting mix. Ball is the largest nursery here. My Basic Soils 5 parts pine bark fines 1 part sphagnum peat (not reed or sedge peat please) 1-2 parts perlite garden lime (or gypsum in some cases) controlled release fertilizer (if preferred) micro-nutrient powder, other continued source of micro-nutrients, or fertilizer with all nutrients - including minors Big batch: 2-3 cu ft pine bark fines 5 gallons peat 5 gallons perlite 2 cups dolomitic (garden) lime (or gypsum in some cases) 2 cups CRF (if preferred) 1/2 cup micro-nutrient powder (or other source of the minors) Small batch: 3 gallons pine bark 1/2 gallon peat 1/2 gallon perlite 4 tbsp lime (or gypsum in some cases) 1/4 cup CRF (if preferred) micro-nutrient powder (or other source of the minors) Here is a link that might be useful: Al's Tapla container soil mix

Been a while since I have been able to get back here. So Sorry!! I am down loading that PFD as I am here to see if what we are talking about, could be the same thing. I don't know where they came from but it killed an enormous amount of tubers most of them before they could come up (discusted!!) I have treated the whole yard with Ortho MAX...I hate using pesticides since I have pets. I know I put in this Flower bed about March and it had all new purchased dirt in it, so I thought they might have come from either the tubers (dahlias &/or Hostas) or maybe even the new purchased dirt. ( An unwanted bonus...Yikes!! ) Then in the flower bed that has been established for some years prior to purchasing the house I put in Cyclamen about February, and they were doing wonderful I mean really great, set seed and everything, then 3 of the 4 went what I thought was dormant...so 2 weeks ago I decided to plant other bulbs in there place, as soon as I dig them up they were sitting in these little creepy bugs, the tubers/bulbs were not damaged just the leaves, I washed them off gave them a good inspection sprayed them with a fungiside and replanted the little ones with a good dose of Ortho Max, The leaves are once again starting to come back up slowly but surely. This is why we decided to treat the entire yard...I put in a new flowerbed this weekend with Glads and young strawberry plants, I treated the bed before I put the mulch in, I have never had to put anything other than a bit of dish detergent on my Strawberries but I hope to ward off any creepy crawly root chewing scavengers before flowering season starts, once fowering season starts for my strawberries I won't use any pestisides in that flowerbed ( they better not like dish detergent ) It was a bit amusing though when I showed my husband a handful of dirt with the pesty creepy pests in it, all he said is he would be back in a bit, when he returned and he said with 2-20 pound bags of Ortho Max we will just treat the whole yard, those things are GROSS...Just to give you an idea of the over kill, I live in a Mobile home park my entire lot is 40X70!! He has since calmed down he said he would treat the yard that day ( he did )and then in another 10 days then we would do some digging in a few places to determine if we need to continue treatment or change treatments, but just to let you know my cheep Dahlia tubers that I purchased to replace the exspensive tubers, I planted last week are in fact coming up already and don't seem to be bothered by the Ortho Max or the bugs...the expensive tubers that did survive are not doing well even to this day and are always having to be treated with a fungiside, they weren't a good quality when I recieved them so I shouldn't be surprised. I hope you are doing well in the garden with your Dahlias, for me I am keeping my fingers crossed. Thanks for the information... I'll be back

Thank you all for your advice! so the spots on the bottom came off when I wiped them away. But the top stops were embedded in the plant stems. Is it possible that mealy bugs started on the bottom, then the newer growths became infected within the plant? I am curious as to the small green/yellow growths that you can see coming out of the stem. Here is what i did: i cut the stem from the point where the white spots were not removable and the growths occured, used hydrogen peroxide to wipe away all the spots that did come off (towards the bottom of the plant), then sprayed the entire plant with a water and detergent mixture. I hope this saves it! Tomorrow, I will go pick up some Bayer Tree & Shrub, like Michelle suggested.