Are you asking if cucumbers set fruit during the hottest part of the summer heat? This year will my first cucumbers since Katrina. I'm almost certain my Burpless cukes would produce right through the hottest part of the growing season. Getting old and, forgetting stuff, is lousy! If I remember correctly, I'd start another batch of cucumbers about 1 month after planting the first bunch. This second planting would last till the first cold snap. The Asparagus bean, also called Yardlong, is a vegetable that LOVES the heat! My Oriental-type eggplants and melons always enjoyed the hot summer months. Plants like swiss chard and others can be helped through the heat by growing them in some shade. But, I don't think cucumbers would benefit from being grown in the shade. My son and a neighbor have started many different vegetable seeds in some of my not-quite-finished stable litter compost and, the seedlings are doing fine. If it's not hurting little tender seedlings, I can't imagine finished compost harming well established seedlings. Here is a link to a site for some more heat loving vegetables; http://www.lsuagcenter.com/news_archive/2006/may/get_it_growing/high+temperatures+stresses+some+vegetables+others+like+it+hot.htm

It is normal for old zucchini leaves to yellow up and die, but it doesn't seem like this is the problem your having. It's hard to say what's going on here, for sure you are having some kind of bug problem. What I'm not sure is if the bugs are causing the leaves to die or if it is a combination of bug and some kind of disease. Also how's the drainage in those tubs? If your zucchini are sitting in water constantly they will die. If it were me I would remove all the dead foilage, and throw it in a garbage bag. If there's any dead leaves on the ground pick them up also and throw them away. Then go to the store and buy some habernero peppers or any hot chiles. Pick up some garlic too. Cut up or mash up in a processor and throw the contents into an empty milk jug. Fill the milk jug with 10% skim milk and the rest water. Throw the cap on it and sit it outside and let it sit for a day. Then spray your leaves with this solution. This should help treat any fungal disease if there is any and also keep the pests away. You will have to re-apply when it rains or if you splash it off when watering.

If it's organic there is always a way to compost it but the real answer depends on how aggressive and talented a composter you are. With a truly hot pile you would probably be o.k. but much caution is otherwise required. Some of the plants you mentioned are very invasive so preventing their spread is your concern more than making compost. For those that are not in seed and can be killed in place (smothering, etc.), I would be tempted to just leave them be after dispatching them (except the really brushy stuff like privet which you will want to get out of the way and chop up). Plants not in seed and that don't have really tough roots or rhizomes are probably o.k. on a cold pile but, again, my experience with invasives is that you should be more concerned with their eradication than putting them to use. Ailanthus is a bit alleopathic. Uprooted vinca would either have to be hot composted or allowed to dry out and die before adding to a cold pile. Vinca clippings without roots would probably be safe on a cold pile. With invasive plants such as these, I tend to let them dry to death off the ground and then throw them back on the ground or in my cold bins. You might want to check out the natives forum and also the management profiles offered by The Nature Conservancy for more advice on how to get rid of these plants.

Hopefully it will give some pause to those that think the answer to (container) soil compaction and excessively high PWTs is perlite or the not so well thought through choice, vermiculite. When you use perlite to amend fine-particled ingredients like peat/compost/coir/sand/topsoil, all it does is reduce the amount of water the soil holds on a per volume basis. The reason for this is because perlite is larger in particle size and only holds water on its surface. Adding the perlite might improve drainage characteristics for a very short time, but the fine particles soon settle in around the perlite and you're back to square 1 in drainage and the ht of the PWT. The fact is, it is the nature of fine particled soil ingredients to compact and hold lots of water, and accompanying these traits is the exclusion of ample volumes of air. I'm not recommending this, but to illustrate: If you STARTED with perlite and added, say 10-15% peat/compost/coir to it, you're not going to have the issues you would if you started with compost and added 10-15% perlite. If people keep long term 'aeration' in the front of their mind as they make soil choices, they will find things much easier and the margin for error much broader than if they remain rigid and tied to the "I have to use this because ....." line of thought. Pine bark fines as the primary soil component makes perfect sense. It satisfies all but the most rabid of the organic growers requirements (I don't understand why anyone would reject its use based on the feeling compost is somehow 'more organic' than bark, but ..... whatever) and ensures excellent aeration while guarding against compaction. The only drawback is you need to pay for the added aeration and reduced water retention by watering a little more frequently. To be clear though, if that is an issue, the perspective has changed from 'how do I maximize plant vitality' to 'how can I make things more convenient for me'. I point out often that grower convenience and maintaining top vitality in our plantings are often, if not usually, mutually exclusive. Al