diff --git a/wp-includes/cron.php b/wp-includes/cron.php
index b4af252161..34e671dade 100644
--- a/wp-includes/cron.php
+++ b/wp-includes/cron.php
@@ -83,8 +83,18 @@ function spawn_cron() {
 
 	$cron_url = get_option( 'siteurl' ) . '/wp-cron.php';
 	$parts = parse_url( $cron_url );
-
-	$argyle = @ fsockopen( $parts['host'], $_SERVER['SERVER_PORT'], $errno, $errstr, 0.01 );
+	
+	if ($parts['scheme'] == 'https') {
+		// support for SSL was added in 4.3.0
+		if (version_compare(phpversion(), '4.3.0', '>=')) {
+			$argyle = @fsockopen('ssl://' . $parts['host'], $_SERVER['SERVER_PORT'], $errno, $errstr, 0.01);
+		} else {
+			return false;
+		}
+	} else {
+		$argyle = @ fsockopen( $parts['host'], $_SERVER['SERVER_PORT'], $errno, $errstr, 0.01 );
+	}
+	
 	if ( $argyle )
 		fputs( $argyle,
 			  "GET {$parts['path']}?check=" . md5(DB_PASS . '187425') . " HTTP/1.0\r\n"