shade for vegetables - Ask Extension
I plant my vegetables in pots set around the back yard. I changed positions the year and had some interesting developments. I have two pots for cu...
Knowledgebase
shade for vegetables #378371
Asked November 28, 2016, 1:13 PM EST
I plant my vegetables in pots set around the back yard. I changed positions the year and had some interesting developments. I have two pots for cucumbers set in a wooden box. I put the box partially under a tree so that one pot got full sun most of the day and the other was shaded by the tip end of the branches of the tree so I guess you would say that it had filtered sunlight. As soon as we started getting the 90 degree weather the plant in the sun had trouble. It grew smaller than the shaded one and would wilt no matter how much water it got perking back up when the sun wasn't so strong. I didn't get many cucumbers from either plant but I think the sunny one had more but the cucumbers grew on the part of its vine that was more in the shade. Should I move the pots so both plants are shaded next year?
Jefferson County Colorado
Expert Response
Cucumbers are going to be most productive in full sun. All cucurbits will wilt in the middle of hot days as a way to conserve water; this phenomenon is called: physiological wilt, where the plants cannot take up enough water to replace the water lost during severe heat (above 90 degrees) and especially in the case of a hot wind. What to try: Put your cucumbers in larger pots so they can build larger root systems; A little shade cover during 2:00-4:00 p.m.; white wash the leaves of your cucumbers with an application of kaolin clay; mulch the surface of the soil in the pots; trellis your cucumbers so they shade themselves during the hottest part of the afternoon (2:00-4:00 p.m.).
Thank you. That is very, very helpful.
Shannon Carranza
Shannon Carranza
I wish you productive cucumbers in 2017.
