What is wrong with my cucumbers?
Question:My cucumber plants had been doing really well, growing very fast, and had begun to produce small cucumber buds. But now, some of the cucumbers are shriveling up and turning yellow (they are still only about 2 inchs long). Also, the leaves are turning brittle in spots (kind of see through and web like) and crumbling away in places. What is wrong??
Answers:
Cucumber Beetle/Bacteria Wilt?
Spotted and striped cucumber beetle attack seedlings soon after they emerge from the soil. If in large numbers, they can stunt or kill small plants. The beetles may carry bacteria wilt disease. They can be controlled with insecticides.
Plants infected with cucumber bacteria wilt disease wilt & collapse. This usually occurs at around the time that the first cucumbers are half grown. Once the signs of bacteria wilt occur, it is too late to control. Control cucumber beetles to prevent bacteria wilt infections. Clean the garden of trash and weeds, where beetles may hibernate and bactirum overwinters (in the cucumber beetles).
Here is what the beetle looks like: http://www.ca.uky.edu/entomology/entfact...
Here is what the effects of baterial wilt look like on the plant: http://plantclinic.cornell.edu/factsheet...
Do you have a once a week schedule, for spraying pesticide. The time to prevent them from critters is now.
might be "rust" which is a bacterial infection. spray with antibiotics and try to plant on a long mound instead flat on the ground to keep moist but not wet ground. Helps with the bugs too. When you make mounds you displace the critters abode - they often move for better diggs.
Good luck.
Have they been getting enough water? I use a soaker hose on mine when I grow them, I don't have any this year but each season is different and it's sometimes hard to figure just what is going on. It could be some kind of pest.
Have you had a lot of rain recently? sounds like cucumber beetle. Also there are several fungi that fit your description. Try unrefined neem oil, it will cover a multitude of "sins' including both insects and fungus. Refinded neem oil is as about useless as **** on a boor hog.
Sounds to me like your problem is more one of nutrition and less about bugs. I do not use ANY pesticides period. I have a few bugs but they are as much a part of nature as I am or my veggies are. I leave the bugs alone unless there is a SERIOUS problem. The yellowing and crumbling leaves are a sign of a weak plant, one that is lacking nutrition. I would recommend starting immediately with a fertilizer like a 15-15-15 after getting a soil sample for testing. Continue watering the plants regularly and fertilize once a week for optimum growth and production of flowers and/or fruit. If you have bugs, try using something like diatemaceous earth which is natural. Any pesticide can kill the good bugs like bees(needed for pollenation)and butterflies. I have tons of bees, butterflies, squirrels, and birds in my yard and along with the bugs, we all do OK.
With the leaves, chances are it's an inch worm eating the leaves. They leave the veins because they can't digest them. I have an inch worm or two on my cucumber plants, but they haven't done enough damage to kill/stunt it. I don't use pesticide on them for environmental reasons. I stopped using pesticides and fertilizers on my yard and it's actually doing better than following a treatment schedule.
However, I'm having the same shriveling problem with my 2" cucumbers. (ahem) I hope I can find out what's causing it because the plant is really healthy.
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