So I've got what I'm pretty sure is blight on my cucumbers (see the leaves in the foreground of the first picture). Most of my vines have leaves looking like this or worse, and some of the cucumbers are starting to rot from the end on the vine (see the medium cucumber at about 11 o'clock in the second picture for one that was salvageable). We moved last fall, so this is a brand new raised bed with new soil this season. I'm wondering if I should even bother waiting a year to plant cucumbers again, because this is new soil and I still got blight. I got about 100 cucumbers from this bed before the blight set in so maybe I should just plant cucumbers and accept that I'll probably get blight in August? Thanks for your thoughts.
by PrairieTransplant68
12 Comments
I plant cucumbers every spring and they barely make it to summer, but I still get about 500,000 cucumbers or more from just 4 plants.
The live hard and die fast.
I’m not convinced that’s blight or bacterial wilt. 99% of your plants look great… if the wilt takes them it will happen over a few weeks and you’ll still get cukes through august. Not much more you can ask for than that.
If you want to put in the work you can spray 8oz of hydrogen peroxide/gallon of water every 2 or so weeks when they start having issues baking soda works too.
Hi there. I think you might be dealing with cucumber mosaic virus (cmv). The yellow spots on the leaves, the rapid decline of the vines that appears like rotting, and the cucumbers in the picture have a chlorotic mosaic pattern. I can’t say for sure that’s what you’re dealing with, but my cucumbers have succumb to this more than once, and that what your symptoms are indicating to me.
If it’s CMV, you’ll see continual decline that will spread and eventually kill all vines. Not sure what else you have growing, but I would recommend removing all of it. Don’t compost the leaves/vines because it’s contagious to other veggies (peppers, tomatoes, etc.). I would not recommend planting new seeds unless you are able to get a disease resistant variety
Plant geonecious parthenocarpic varieties. You’ll have more cucumbers than you know what to do with. Who cares if they die fast then. Just makes space to plant more runner beans and squash underneath.
I always plant with the expectation to replace the early spring plants by august 1. I’m in NC and the humidity and brutal temps just decimate our spring crops, but we have time for a second run most yrs.
Squash and cucumbers I stagger seeds once a month after first plant go in ground. Mine go in ground with covers around April first. Then I start seeds may1 and June 1 to replace as needed.
Did you use the same seeds as last year? If so it’s possible the seeds themselves are contaminated by a mosaic virus.
We have squash that have done the same thing two years in a row and realised it could be the seeds so we are trying a second run but our season is short so we will see.
Same with cucumbers last year. Tried new seeds and so far so good. Even if they come from a very reputable supplier it can happen.
Some crops just die from disease as well. I grow indeterminate tomatoes and I accept the fact that whatever I do I can only slow down the late blight not prevent it entirely. Cucumbers can be the same.
I got like 3 cucumbers before this happened to mine. Then a vine or 2 would recover, start fruit, then it would happen again.
I’ve had the exact same thing happen, brand new soil, all the right prep, and the blight still finds a way in by late July or August. I still plant cucumbers every season since the early harvests are awesome, and I just plan to rip them out when they start looking bad. I’ve also tried a couple resistant varieties, and they do hang in there longer. Just part of the summer garden routine now I guess!
Those vanilla beans look ripe!
No- no, do not bother next year. You see, you carry the curse….yes, the curse of the blight. You are simply- oh, how shall I put this… you are…impure… you are unclean, you are…….un-worthy. Perhaps potato’s or onions are more “up your alley”. Please… do take leave of this good community and be on your way posthaste.
I must be having beginners luck because my cucumber vines are super healthy right now. Hopefully I didn’t just jinx myself 🥲