I grew bush cucumbers in the same row as a couple other short vine varieties (not bush.) The bush plants generally grew worse, looked worse, produced little, and died an early death. We live in an area that has several endemic airborne fungus and bacterial diseases. I just concluded that the bush variety I grew (I think it was Burpee pickle bush?) didn't have much disease resistance. Now I specifically look for varieties that have disease restance. Regal (Harris seeds) and Cool Breeze (various sources) have become my staples but note that they are both picklig types, Cool Breeze somewhat burpless. Here is a link that might be useful: Disease resistant bush cucumber This post was edited by terry_neoh on Wed, Apr 23, 14 at 15:57

If he is dealing with wilt then cucumber beetles need to be controlled or it's likely to happen every year. County Fair is a variety that is good for pickling as well as fresh eating that is very resistant to wilt. It's the only one I know of. It isn't immune, but I have lost cuke after cuke of other varieties while County Fair kept on producing despite badly chewed up leaves. I have lost a couple of them over the years, but it's not common.

I assume you mean bacterial wilt. If so, then the only way to protect your plants from it is to not let cucumber beetles munch on your plants. You must kill every cucumber beetle you see because the beetles are what carry and transmit the wilt. You might be able to protect your plants if you cover them with either floating row cover or with tulle. However, you'd have to take it off to allow bees in to pollinate which could also let in the beetles or you'd have to hand pollinate yourself. Also, I believe that the County Fair variety of cucumber is resistant to bacterial wilt (haven't grown it though). Several years ago there used to be a very interesting discussion about homemade cucumber beetle traps on this forum but for some reason it's not on gardenweb anymore. So traps might be something to look into. In my own experience, I have found that I don't have a beetle problem if I grow cukes on a bi-yearly basis. If I grow cukes for two years or more in a row, I have a major problem. Rodney

If what you have is really BW then the pathogenic bacteria is systemic and in the fruit as well. I wouldn't eat them but it is your choice. If you have researched BW then you know there is an easy test you can do to determine if that is really what it is. Squash plants can be affected by it but the odds heavily favor one of the more common squash problems instead. If either plant recovers after watering or when "out of the sun" then it isn't BW. Dave