rubylune, it sounds like your cucumber beetles have given your plants bacterial wilt. The only variety of cucumber resistant to it is County Fair. I'd try that next year and being a little more aggressive getting the beetles under control and see if you have better luck.

And it's not so much resistant as the cucumber does not produce the "bitter" substance near the vine end of the cucumber which is what cucumber beetles smell and are attracted to.

A suggestion which has been posited but I have not seen a definitive experiment, is to blend the bitter ends of ripe cucumbers in a blender along with Sevin insecticide and pour the contents into yellow plastic cups and arrange them around the garden. The only creatures that should find themselves in the bottom of those cups are cucumber beetles.

Along the same lines as what Feldon is saying, I've also heard that the burpless varieties are not as attractive to cucumber beetles because they lack that bitterness, but I can't swear to it. I mentioned County Fair because rubylune said something about picklers/kirby types in particular.

I guess I am lucky because I think the only bug I have not seed is a cucumber beetle! There were beetles in my beans but I was able to hand pick them off before they ate too many leaves. My biggest problem this yearhas been white flies and those little white hopping psillids(sp?). Those hopping varmints move so fast you can hardly spray them with anything! Luckily they are so stupid that they hang out together and are visible enough to sneak up on them! I think there were a few aphids on cucumber leaves but that is about it!

Kelley

I didn't know fire ants farm aphids, but they sure do. I'm having to spray with soapy water on a regular basis to keep my cucumber plants alive.

I have not had too many ants in the tomato bed so maybe that is why not so many aphids! I am assuming that the molasses in my compost tea is chasing them elsewhere! Still in all there are enough to get some aphids way up the top of my cukes and maters! I now carry a spray bottle of soapy water with me everytime I go through the garden just to try to keep up with the hoppers! Are beetles of any kind actually good for anything?

Decided I'm tired of losing cukes to Powdery mildew- I spent the winter searching for OP varieties resistant to it and am growing Poinsett 76 , Straight 9 and Marketmore 76. So far , so good. Wish me luck!


Mary Ann

I don't think I have ever lost a whole plant to powdery mildew. Have you tried spraying it with a half milk half water solution or using neem? My squash and cukes are always having powery mildew! Its been trying to rain here all week, nothng major just lots of sprinkles and light rain but my squash looks horrible from powdery mildew...

I'm sure I've posted in here before - but I'm growing Diva (love this cuke) and Burpee Pickler - and both are setting fruit like crazy.
My only prob. ? Keeping them moist in this heat ~

Tom

Tom,
Even with this rain I can't keep the cukes moist! Mine are setting fruit like crazy but not being pollinated ;(

Yeah, when it gets really hot, cucumbers need a lot of water or they start to become bitter. I've been watering in the morning and in the afternoon, they look a little wilty so I give them another drink. We should see some relief from the heat here by Thursday.

We had enough Snow's to make a small batch of pickles today and had a few Boothby's Blonde leftover for salads.

Hi Kelley,
I read about the milk spray and am using it on the pattypan squash and zuchini that showed a touch of mildew and it cleared it right up.

Mary Ann

My county fair is groing beautifully, I have a soaker hose at the base of the plants and so far no wilt from heat whatsoever. However, almost all of the flowers are female and I seem to have a deficit of pollinators at this point. Hopefully it will start producing soon

why do they get mildew on them?

I think Powdery Mildew is a problem faced by pretty much all curcurbits (melons, cucumbers, squash). But I have only been gardening for 2 years. I don't believe I've had it, but it's hard to tell when every other fungal disease is tearing down the plants. :(

My "no scientific basis" guess is that since curcurbits can trace back to Africa, that they do best in sandy, completely arid climates with no humidity and thrive on the occasional rainfall.