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Help: what is this cucumber missing?
(feddit.org)
It's in some mix of cannabis soil I had, with 30% added compost.
A tomato plant got the same mix and is doing just fine, this cucumber guy seems to be unhappy.
I checked the pH (mixed soil with some water and used my pH / EC meter) and it was around 6, so I thought it should not be nute lockout, cucumbers are supposed to be between 6-6,5?
I have no clue but I would guess it's iron, guessing from images I've seen, but I'm surprised how it could be lacking iron if a tomato is doing fine in the same soil.
Also whatever it is, how should I fix it?
I did not grow that one from a seed, it's one I bought with the two first real leaves randomly in a supermarket and the first two leaves did not have this problem, it looked healthy.
The first few leaves normally don't express. It takes a little while for the virus to replicate. If I had to guess it could be ZYMV. It is seedborne in cucumbers and is spread by aphids. ZYMV is endemic to all seed production regions. So it pops up with regularity.
Is it only affecting cucumbers ? Should I kill it and do I have to get rid of the soil to not infect anything else or other cucumbers if I would start a new one ?
ZYMV mainly infects species in the cucurbit family (squash, pumpkin, melons, cucumbers etc). I don't recall if it bothers tomatoes.
The only way to know for sure is with an ELISA test strip.
Of course multiple nutrient deficiencies like Mg, and K can also cause mosaic like symptoms. A heavy infestation of fungus gnats in the soil can also damage the roots and cause similar symptoms.
So give it some fertilizer and wait a week. If the new growth improves it's nutrient related. If not, it's a virus.
Thanks! That was roughly what I also decided to do, wait and look at new leaves. There's no reason for them to be that way.
Could something like this be caused by me waiting too long from potting the plant from its tiny nursery pot into the current one? Like immobile nutrient deficits only showing once it could start growing in the bigger pot? Or is it rather unlikely to persist over like 4-5 leaves ? I don't know maybe if something went wrong when these leaves were still in the tip of the shoot and with immobile nutes this is like stamped over their development ?
The side shoots (which are not growing a lot right now) have a leaf showing out that looks normal, I thought about removing the apex shoot and seeing what happens with these other shoots when they have to take over.
If you pop the plant up and look at its roots right now you'd answer your own questions. Cucumbers roots grow very rapidly at that stage. They are all over that pot chasing nutrients. If it is a nutrients issue, it's from that potting soil.