Cucumber troubles this year

[b54red]

Originally Posted by Annie

I need help with my cucumbers, they were planted first part of March, have grown great, have loads of blossoms and they are running everywhere. There are little cucumbers at the end of the blossoms. They were growing great but now they are turning yellow and dropping off. I have gotten about three nice ones. You know they grow cucumbers so fast that you go out one morning and have a bunch of them. Now they seem to just stay where they are and are not getting any larger. What is my problem? Now my next problem, I finally started getting yellow straight squash but the leaves have gotten white dots all over them that looks like a fungus. I have sprayed with an anti fungus with no success. I finally cut all the leaves off with the white spots, am getting new growth but noticed a few little white spot on some of the new leaves. It looks like spores. Any suggestions. Anne

It sounds like you may have nematodes affecting the roots. I have had that problem with cucumbers acting just like you describe and when I finally pulled them out the roots were nothing but strings of little knots. It sometimes gets in my squash plant roots too but not as often or as early.

It sounds like you have powdery mildew or downy mildew on your squash plants. It is very tough to stop once it gets bad. I spray mine making very sure to get the undersides of the leaves with a mild bleach solution; but all the leaves that are affected will die from this treatment but it is the only thing I have found that will stop it once it gets going good. I mix 8 ounces of regular strength bleach into a full gallon of water with a little dish washing soap added as a spreader sticker. Then spray the entire plant especially the undersides of the leaves with a fine mist very late in the day. Wait three to five days and repeat the process and also hit the mulch and ground under the plant then wait a day and start using a fungicide weekly to prevent it from coming back. I have waited so long before using this treatment that all the leaves were affected and the treatment nearly killed the plant because so few leaves were unaffected by the spray. If you catch mildew early before it spreads too much this treatment works pretty good.

[tjg911]

for powdery or downy mildew use "fish milk" -

fish milk is easy to make, use this as a foliar spray:

o 2 cups of milk i prefer whole milk but low fat is ok
o 1 teaspoon dish detergent NOT ANTIBACTERIAL as it'll kill beneficial bacteria on the plant
o fish emulsion or fish and seaweed emulsion concentrate use the amount specified for 2 quarts of water. i use neptune's harvest and i use 1/2 tablespoon
o 2 quarts of water

spray plants every 5 days when it rains or every 3 weeks when it is dry. spray in the morning on a sunny day as the sun activates the protective properties. do not store this, mix it fresh each time. if i have any left over i spray cukes and squashes. tomatoes seem to benefit form this too perhaps from the calcium. there is very little research about this. i don't drink milk so i buy a gallon and let it sit in the basement fridge. it can go beyond the expire date so long as it is not turning to yogurt! if you drink milk, then you'll have a fresh supply all the time.



i don't have experience with nematodes but i use this against root maggots. it is very effective. cabbages that were wilting and looked like they'd die recovered in a couple of days! water the plants with approx 1/3 to 1/2 cup of shifted wood ashes in 2 gallons of water. i don't get it on the leaves just water the base. i give each plant about 1 quart of water, enough to soak the roots.

tom

[Crandrew]

Does the Actinovate and Excel LG mix help against the mildew issue?

[Annie]

Thanks for all the information , will copy this down and start on my squash and cucumbers. I did cut off all the leaves that were effected on the cucumbers and there are new leaves coming and blossoms. I have never had problems with squash until this year. Of course the humidity doesn't help either. Annie