First year growing cucumbers north of Houston, TX. Noticed what I think was downy mildew when vines were newer. Started spraying captain Jack's copper fungicide. Didn't notice any improvement. Got worse 2 weeks ago and sprayed Daconil and today they look horrible. New cucs are all yellow and barely any growing. I've included a few photos from various days. Was/is it downy mildew? I know also have some aphids and lots of ladybugs out there helping. Can I save these by pruning hard or give up for this year? And what should I have done? I don't have irrigation but I try to water gently at the ground, of course we've had tons of rain this summer. I appreciate any help as we are crazy about our garden and want to expand and succeed! Bonus pic of one of my daughters "holding" a butterfly after patiently waiting with the marigolds.
by 5from2
14 Comments
Good news is that I don’t see any powdery mildew, it’s got a white haze to it. How was your crop? I’mma in 7b and have already had to pull my cucs, it was the end of their season for me. It does look like the aphids got to the plant. Try releasing ladybugs or assassin bugs next year to help with them. I am an aggressive pruner with the leaves. Any yellowing…they get clipped. I found that there was a bit more airflow and warded off the powdery mildew that I got last year.
I would give up for the year. Cucumbers are delicate and ephemeral. Once they start to go, best to yank them and prep your fall garden.
Looks more like aphid damage to me. If you see a bunch of white flecks, it’s the exoskeleton of the aphids. They can be hard to control but just spraying the leaves with the hose on jet can knock them down. You just need to do it consistently so it doesn’t get out of hand
That’s not mildew I think it’s mosaic virus but cucumbers often have these issues, the point is to outrun them (have the plant producing before the disease catches up) at least in my garden….
I yanked down all my cucumber vines at the beginning of August because I saw signs of cucumber blight. I posted on here about whether to plant there next year and learned that for most gardeners cucumbers are a “live fast die young,” kind of crop, and Texas and other long season folks plan on succession planting. I realize now I should’ve left my vines up, especially since the one I missed is still producing. So if I were you, I wouldn’t stress about it, see if some vines recover, and if not appreciate that you had a good run before this.
I’m in TX and was having this same issue last year. Discovered it was spider-mites. Use a water hose w/ a jet nozzle and blast the hell out of the leaves and it knocks everything off of them. A week later the plants had completely rebounded. Good luck!
I had a pretty short season as well, got the mildew, then cucumber beetles and probably something else.
Next year I’m going to do 2 beds on the other side of backyard dedicated for just cucumbers.
The take away here is you know you have a powdery mildew problem in your garden/area and in the future you should look to plant resistant varieties. Not necessarily how much crap you can spray on your edibles. Every year seed companies try to sell you by the pictures or how “new” something is, but it’s really best to find something that suits your unique set of circumstances. BTW, there was a study linking copper sprays to Parkinson’s. So… just be aware organic isn’t always free of health concerns
I wish mine still looked like this in September. Mine are all in jars or about to become tonight’s cucumber salad at this point.
First step — don’t spray things. Spraying most things has a domino effect on the ecosystem, your garden, and your/our health. And it usually doesn’t help anyway.
Next time, post the issue in a sub like this first, and there will be plenty of people to help diagnose and problem solve!
I find the best way to garden is to work with the ecosystem in mind. If you create a bio-diverse garden, and let nature do its thing without doing too much too it, you’ll probably find that the garden practically grows itself over the years. Look into ways of doing that! That’s what I’m doing as I learn 🙂
Im in the cypress/tomball area with the same issues. I just pulled them and replanted a few weeks ago, figured there’s a 50/50 chance I can get another late harvest.
Water. More water.
Eh, I’m in north Texas and on my second set of cucumbers and mine looks like that. Mine was covered in aphids. I just canned my last pickles yesterday and don’t intend to do any more so I’m going to pull it. Also, if you let even one cucumber go overripe on the vine, the vine will begin to decline.
I had downy mildew take down my cucumber plants this year and it looks a lot like this. Except for the pic with the black specs, not sure what those are. But the yellow speckled leaves look like downy mildew. With how humid this summer was, I don’t think there was much prevention to be had unfortunately. It’s also getting to the end of cucumber season anyway so I was grateful for what I got and will look for mildew resistant varieties next season.