I sure wish I could help,I also have problems with cucumber beetles and sad to say never thought about a row cover! As you know, diva do not need pollination as you mentioned, so since they are my favorite cuke,I'm going to experiment with a row of them this summer. And if no one else has experience,I'll let you know this summer. Do not know why i never thought about try a row cover.

I think I'm going to try one of the lower weight agribon fibers sold by Johnny's. Might use 1/2" PVC pipe as a frame but not sure how to do this best to avoid it falling apart in the wind. The fiber would have a side benefit of raising the soil and air temps a bit as well.

I don't have personal experience with growing cukes under a row cover, but I have experimented with row covers for several years. The best method that I've found is the coiled metal hoops and I have used shade cloth and the fabric to extend the growing season. I use the long staples to hold the fabric in place. I get my gardening supplies from an Amish produce supply but, I'm sure that it is available elsewhere. It works great and easy work with. The coiled wire holds its shape and the staples are easily removed if you want to remove the cover. I get heavy duty staples and they last for years.There's alot of uses for the crop covers. The coiled metal is made for a 2ft or 4ft wide row.

Luke

I have always had trouble with disease growing cucumbers until I tried using row covers last year. My crop was outstanding particularly given the cold, wet summer we had in coastal MA.I grew Eureka, Marketmore 76 and an experimental type of slicer. I used no support at all simply "floating" the fabric over the newly emerging plants. As they grew, they pushed the fabric up.I did attach the corners with fabric staples, some purchased and some made from wire coat hangers. I removed the fabric at blossom time,put in my netting support and they took off. By then most of the cuke beetles were not to be seen. I did spot a few solitary critters during the summer. For occasional weeding, I simply lifted the staples on one side. We have vigorous SW winds here every afternoon and the fabric stayed put. I also used the fabric on my summer squash, peas and bean plants where it was also effective. I am now a true believer.
Good luck.

I am using row covers this winter over my lettuce bed. I flattened out my tomato cages and formed hoops over the lettuce. Then used floating row cover over that and weighted down the edges with the metal stakes I used on the cages. It's working great. The squares in the hoops are plenty big for harvesting. I am thinking of trying this method for jump-starting tomatoes this spring (subbing plastic for the fabric) and using bird netting over the strawberries, as well as trying cucumbers too. (I'm gonna need more cages. :)

I should add that I grow in 8' x 3.5' raised beds, so the hoops are just the perfect size.

Fine Gardening Magazine (I think.) had an article about this a few years ago. They recommended using flexible 1" PVC pipe for the hoops that would fit over metal re-bar stakes driven into the ground. This might be more practical for longer/bigger beds than mine.

What kind of "FABRIC" do you use? I have just learned and found a fabric that is very light weight and comees in various mesh size. That is called french TULLE, sold at fabric stores. It also comes in several colors; white, green, blue. You can just throw it on the plants or on a plastic hoop. I had problems with my eggplants last year.
I wish I had know this then. This fabric can also deter deers as well as small insects.
With the cukes, pollination and vine size can be a problem.
Unless one plants bush type and the variety that does not nees pollinators.

Hi,

Cucumber beetles killed everything in my garden last year and I, too, have been trying to research the row cover concept. However, last year I was told (in this same forum I believe) that the larvae overwinter in the ground (???) and nematodes are very effective to rid the ground. So...in addition to the row covers, I am also purchasing the nematodes (probably closer to March)....I believe it's called Scan something or other...search NEMATODES...they are $20 for a bucket that will do over 2000 sf.

I think I'm going to invet in the tulling fabric...I can get it really cheap on Fabric Row down in Philadelphia....I'll just buy whatever is on clearance (doesn't matter what color!)...but I would incorporate the nematodes as well if you've had a problem in the past since the larvae do overwinter apparently...the row covers will protect for whatever comes in, but the larvae will hatch BELOW the covers and...well...the plants will be ruined.

Pam
Havertown, PA

Pam,

That sounds like good advice. Arbico sells the nematodes. You have to buy the correct ones for where you live and the pest you're trying to eradicate.

Thanks

I've started my cucumber plants under Agribon for several years, as I also do for young squash plants. Insects (cuke beetles, squash bugs, SVB) would quickly destroy any vine crop seedlings I left unprotected. I had a lot of years that were total losses for squash & cukes, prior to using covers - and only a few minor losses since. When the cukes begin to bloom, I remove the covers & train the vines to a trellis.

In my area, where there are wild cucumbers & pickle farms to sustain their population, cucumber beetles will always fly in from the surrounding area. I don't know whether they overwinter where their host plants were the year earlier, since I rotate the location of my vine crops each year (good practice for any crop). I've never had them appear under the covers.

It seems that if I cover the vine crops early, and miss the first egg-laying cycle, only a few beetles appear later in the season. These are in far fewer numbers than I would expect otherwise, and the mature plants are healthy enough that they generally do little damage. However, they can still infect wilt-susceptible cucumbers, even mature plants. Growing a disease-resistant variety, or a parthenocarpic variety which can be kept covered, will overcome this. For wilt-susceptible varieties, spreading single plants throughout the garden - rather than together in one place - will increase chances for success. The bees can find them more easily than the beetles.

While row covers themselves are fairly inexpensive, that can't be said for the methods offered of holding them down. Ground staples are pretty pricey, especially if you need a lot of them. The same can be said of the clips used to fasten fabric row covers to PVC hoops. I tried making my own ground staples, by cutting single-row strips from 4-foot-wide concrete remesh; it worked well, but they were a pain to remove at year's end.

Personally, I would recommend just allowing the fabric to float over the vines. It will be pushed up by the foliage, provided that the cover is allowed enough slack for it to do so.

The most economical way to secure a cover is to bury the edges. I spread the cover, use bamboo skewers to hold the edges in place, and cover them with several inches of soil. Water the soil over the edges to bond it to the fabric, and to seal the edges. Be sure to leave enough slack for the plants to grow. If you need access, leave one side unburied, holding it down with something which can be easily removed. I use 10-foot lengths of 1/2" rebar rod, but boards held down by bricks would work as well. Whatever is used to hold down the open end, the edges should be lightly buried after each entry, since the beetles will crawl under any edge left unsealed. Also, round off any sharp edges which might chafe against the fabric as the wind moves it back & forth. Another reason I found that I like using soil... it has no sharp edges. ;-)

The buried cover will resist all but the strongest winds, since it will tend to lay flat. Oh, and it will keep out slugs as well, unless they were there before the cover was applied.

Maybe a little OT, but one last note, regarding cucumber beetles. My observations seem to indicate that the use of fertilizer on vine crops increases their attractiveness to cucumber beetles. They locate their host plants by scent, so it may be that the accelerated growth caused by fertilization increases the production of the chemicals which attract them. It doesn't seem to matter if the fertilizer is chemical or organic.

Attacks by other insects (such as squash bugs on squash) also seem to encourage attack by cucumber beetles. I don't protect all of my squash with row cover, since Tromboncino is naturally resistant to SVB & can fight off squash bugs & cuke beetles on its own when healthy. If I find a swarm of cucumber beetles on a young Tromboncino vine, there is nearly always an adult squash bug somewhere on the plant... so the beetles actually act as my "early warning" for the first squash bugs. I've inspected all plants several times when I first observed this, and only the plants with squash bugs had swarms of beetles attacking them. It allows me to catch the squash bugs early, before they have laid eggs.

Thanks Zeedman

If I was gardening to be economical I'd buy my vegetables at the grocery store. Suspect it costs me double to grow them myself. Just ordered agribon row cover material and plastic mulches.