"John Savage" wrote:
I haven't tried this, but a local (Australian) TV gardening
program used a molasses solution watered into the ground
as an organic treatment for nematodes.

Thanks.

Did it affect the oldest/largest leaves first, while the young
tip leaves seemed to stay healthy?

All those cucumbers are dead now. g I have another one
growing in a different area at the moment. One I planted a
month ago is dying.

As far as the leaves go, over the summer I was pretty sure
of the silverleaf whiteflies attacking squash and cucumbers.
Those whiteflies hung out on the bottom of the leaves, and
tapping the leaves, you'd see little spots jumping. They
were quite small. That was over the summer (June/July/Aug)
and those particular cucumbers and squash never fruited.
The squash died pretty quickly, the cucumbers were yamato
variety and hung around until September/October before I
finally just let them go and gave up on them.

There were quite a few caterpillars evolving on those
cucumber leaves as well. I picked off alot of those green
caterpillars. And I was messing with ways to get rid of the
whiteflies.

The silverleaf whiteflies cause damage by secreting some
bad stuff into the leaves which makes veins in the leaf turn
silvery, then the whole leaf eventually pales and gets a silver
glowish look to it, but the plant continues to live and grow.
I'm only guessing that it makes the whole plant weaker.

The latest cucumbers that did fruit... I eventually let all the
bugs develop on those leaves, as I thought they were all
Asian lady bugs, and it was later that I learned that cuke
beetles can appear to be ladybug looking.

I can't really comment at the moment because I didn't
discriminate between which leaves were attacked and
which weren't. I'm thinking that the oldest leaves though
do seem to get attacked first before the younger leaves.

The new yamato cucumbers I have growing have some
really big leaves growing, and I am seeing holes in the big
leaves but there are no flies or visible bugs at the moment
that I am seeing. Yes the older leaves are getting holes,
and there are some beautiful new leaves growing every
day.

I did try a yellow plastic coffee can lid and I put some
vegetable oil in it over the summer. The cuke vines grew
4 feet up a fence and then started growing horizontally
along the top of the fence.

I've already started watering the leaves on the newest
cuke. Just the underside for the most part, even though
I don't see any bugs. And I appreciate and understand
your comment and concerns about not spraying the plants
with water. It's kind of chilly (50 degree Fahrenheit) at
night and 70ish during the day here now. eg The
people in New York will laugh.

An organic remedy for this mildew problem is to spray the
leaves with a mix of 1 part whole milk to 9 parts water. (I'd
do this well before mid-afternoon, to make sure the leaves
are dry before nightfall.) Repeat every week.

I'll give that a try. Thanks!

Just one more question about cucumbers. I noticed you
mentioned that cucumbers will stop fruiting. So how long
are cucumbers expected to live? I keep hoping they can
live more than 2 or 3 months but perhaps I'm dreaming.

--
Jim Carlock
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