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Vegetable Gardening

Wilted Cucumber plants

16 years ago

Another cucumber problem -- yay!!!

I have four cucumber plants, all climbing their trellises beautifully. One of them, however, looks beautiful every morning, but by 10:00am is horribly wilted. I've lost plants to bacterial wilt in the past, and just don't think this is it (the plant "comes back" every night). The four cucumber plants are all together and this is the only one affected. All I can suppose is that the nasturtiums I planted in front of it are out of control, and maybe they're taking too much of it's water? I ususally water in the afternoon (I have two small children, and it's when I get a chance) -- should I make more of an effort to water it before the sun hits it?

Right now, I'm thinking of pulling it up to plant something else...

I hope I gave enough information for some hypotheses. Thanks for reading

MB

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Comments (4)

annie-lee
16 years ago
"All I can suppose is that the nasturtiums I planted in front of it are out of control, and maybe they're taking too much of it's water? I ususally water in the afternoon"

Are the nasturtiums planted only in front of this sick plant? I also think that water in the morning is much better. Do you also mulch heavily around the head of the plants? Touch around and see if it is particularly dry around the head of this particular plant. Don't just pull up this sick plant now before you find out why, do some experimentation and learn something!
iacche
16 years ago
It's possibly the Squash Vine Borer. I've found SVB eggs on my cukes before. And your symptoms seem to match -- wilting and coming back. Look for a hole in the fine, esp. near the base, with frass coming out.
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I agree that it is most likely that cucumber beetles introduced bacterial wilt to your cucumbers. The disease is not in your soil, it's in the beetles. There is no cure. You can only prevent the problem by choosing resistant varieties and using an appropriate insecticide from the beginning. I had the same problem with my cucumbers until I grew Diva cucumbers, which are supposed to be unappealing to the beetles, and started spraying regularly with spinosad. I never saw the beetles on my cucumbers, but I did see a few on other plants. Cucumbers grow fast, so you can choose a resistant variety and start over. Here is a link that might be useful: Info on bacterial wilt
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Plants generally do not die from a human literally touching them (unless the human is laced with poison). *wink* It may or may not be SVB. In the future, if it is SVB, the best things you can do are to make sure your soil is rich in organic matter so it is healthy and to plant varieties that are resistant to SVB in the first place. You can read up on detection and control methods here: Squash Bug & Squash Vine Borer: Organic Controls from ATTRA the National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service managed by the National Center for Appropriate Technology (NCAT) and funded under a grant from the United States Department of Agriculture's Rural Business-Cooperative Service. It provides information and other technical assistance to farmers, ranchers, Extension agents, educators, and others involved in sustainable agriculture in the United States Get or update your free PDF Acrobat Reader if you need to. Each stage of each life cycle must be addressed.
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There are 6 species of Cucumber Beetles and they not only will feed on about all of the plants in this melon family but numerous other plants as well. The link below is a good article about them and the methods of control that can be used. There is no one thing that is consistently effective but a variety of methods need to be used. The presence of Powdery Mildew indicates more problems and that you should look at the soil you are growing these in ot be sure it is good and healthy. Powdery Mildew can be fairly easily controlled with sprays of either 1 teaspoon of baking soda mixed in 1 quart of water or a 50/50 mix of fat free milk and water sprayed every 5 to 7 days on infected plants. Here is a link that might be useful: Cucumber beetles
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Some of the cucumber beetles that killed my cucumber plants have spread to my bean plants. They don't like it as much, but they are causing some holes. I also occasionally spot one on my raspberry plants. I often hear about how they spread bacterial wilt to cucumber plants, but can they infect the bean and raspberry plants? I'm saving the seeds of the bean plants for next year. I'm curious to know if the seeds can be infected with bacterial wilt?
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iacche
16 years ago
That should have said, look for a hole in the VINE. . . .
mogzilla
Original Author
16 years ago
Hmmm...well, there are two plants next to each other and only one is wilty. The nasturtiums are in front of both plants. I don't have any mulch down in the garden (a huge sin, I know), but the garden patch holds water very well. I'll try my best to get out and water in the mornings, but I have a newborn and a toddler and it's usually 11am before I get my first cup of coffee! I guess I should just be happy I got any plants in the ground at all this year.

I hadn't thought of SVB on cucumber plants. I actually chased one moth around the garden with a huge metal spoon one day, cursing and screaming (I never got her). Since it's been more than ten days since that incident (the neighbors are convinced I'm insane), I assumed somehow I'd escaped as my zucchini plants so far are fine. Though today I trimmed some branches off them that had wilted leaves and found the stems completely hollow.

I feel the beginning of the end...

Ah, well, at least we got a dozen or so zucchini and some cucumbers. I won't give up on the plants yet, I guess.

Thanks for your responses.

It's always this part of the summer when I feel I don't control the garden, it controls me.

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