Oh and to answer your question I have been feeding them miracle grow once a week. That's what I suspected and that is where all the salt damage is coming from. No garden vegetable requires weekly feeding unless it is grown in a container and then only in a well diluted form. And no garden vegetable with the exception of leafy greens like lettuce/chard/spinach requires such high dose nitrogen feeding, much less on a weekly basis. MG and fertilizers like it are ok when used properly. When used excessively the massive amounts of salts they contain build up on the leaves and in the soil. The symptoms on the plants are excessively dark green leaves, burned crispy leaf edges and bleached inter-veinal patches in the leaf tissue. As the leaf tissue is destroyed then bacteria and fungi move in on the destroyed leaf tissues and that is what the yellow patches in the cuke leaf pic might be. Look on the underside of that leaf. If there are black patches of mold or white fuzzy/furry growths then disease is starting. If not then they are just salt damaged patches that haven't faded to white yet. Since these plants are apparently in ground, reduce your MG use to no more often than monthly and preferably no more than every 6 weeks and focus on applying it to the soil and root area, not the leaves. Hope this helps. Dave.

My cukes are already dead thanks to the CB's. Now they've moved on to a zuke plant I have. Of course, they prefer the blossoms. Recently I found 8-10 CB's IN a zuke blossom. I sprinkled a very small amount of Rotenone IN the blossom then tilted it sideways over a small pail of soapy water. They crawled out and fell into the soapy water. They did not like the rotenone at all. I then sprayed the inside of the blossom with the water hose to remove the Rotenone. (since bees also like squash blossoms) In doing so, I wet the straw mulch around the plant. Before long a parade of squash bugs and CB's began to climb onto the zuke to escape the moist surroundings. I squished the CB's and drowned the SB's. Squishing the squash bugs grosses me out too much. ewww... If anyone knows a better way of removing the CB's from the blossonms, I'd like to hear. I find CB's to be more difficult to catch than squash bugs. They're quick! Everyday I spray the zuke and the straw mulch around it with a good blast of water. That method probably won't work for you if you don't have straw or a similiar mulch for the buggers to hide in. Good luck!

Its better to direct sow 3-4 seeds per mound but each seed individually 8-12" apart, then cut the stalks off all but the strongest plant. Don't pull the others out because you could disturb the roots of the one you are going to keep, and you've already learned the hard way that they have tender roots that don't tolerate damage well. Alternatively, you can start them in 12oz Dixie/Solo cups slit at the bottom to drain properly, one seed to a cup. Then when they are about a week old water thoroughly to keep the soil in tact, press sides of cup to loosen, turn cup upside down with vine stem lightly between two fingers and remove from the cup, then plant in hole where you want them to grow. I prefer the second method because I hate it when you have two or three strong plants on one hill and have to sacrifice several healthy ones from the same hill. In individual cups you can clearly see the healthy ones vs. the runts and don't have to start as many seed.... Tom

Hi. No I don't think the rot will go away. I would pick everything that has rot and dispose of it in the garbage. Then remove the mulch and let the soil dry out. As for watering. I don't go by any uniform time to water or how long to water. I go by feel. I stick my finger in the soil. If it's wet about an inch down I don't water. If it's dry I water and I water until I can stick my whole finger in and feel moisture. You have mulch which cuts down on the amount you have to water and over watering can cause more problems than under watering