"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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"Jim Carlock" writes:
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.

You know, some of the curcubits have the silver veins in their leaves,
zuchinnis do, so perhaps your variety of cucumbers does too. I tend to
the view that your cucumbers are dying from mildew, more so in light of
your admission that you regularly water the 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.

You say you are a beginning vege gardener. Do you know of the bacteria
spray (BT) that you can use to destroy caterpillers (of species that will
turn into moths)?

I did try a yellow plastic coffee can lid and I put some
vegetable oil in it over the summer. The cuke vines grew

You need to hang a large yellow object up, shake the plants to get
the flies airborne, and they then land on the attractive yellow and
get stuck.

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.

My Mum grew cucumbers. Like most curcubits here, their life here ends
prematurely when they succumb to leaf mildew. But 2 months sounds a
good duration for cucumbers to be bearing. I used to hand pollinate them.
The flowers are so small that bees would overlook them in favour of the
bigger zucchini blooms. There is nothing worse then watching your
cucumbers flowering madly, and none of them setting. Pick a male flower,
strip it of the petals, and rub its pollen into the female flowers.
--
John Savage (news address invalid; keep news replies in newsgroup)

On 12/6/04 4:12 PM, in article
, "John Savage"
wrote:

"Jim Carlock" writes:
snip
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.

My Mum grew cucumbers. snip I used to hand pollinate them.
The flowers are so small that bees would overlook them in favour of the
bigger zucchini blooms.
Jim, I think you are right about the mildew...I have seen the same thing
even in the heat of summer. (Sorry, I sniped that part)...the leaves turn a
whitish colour. My cucs still produced though. I like that part! But
there were three or four plants growing in the same area. When I dug them up
it appeared there was only one plant that had actually carried on. Obviously
I will have to watch more carefully if I am to know what is going on.

Jim/John,
Big bees are attracted to big flowers but there are also little bees
and/or wasps (at least in my part of the country). These little bees or
wasps can be attracted if you have some small flowered plants (besides the
cucumbers). Many certified organic farmers will grow a multitude of
flowers-some big, some small, to attract both.
The first time I visited an organic vegetable farm I saw this one row
with flowers in it..."doesn't look like a vegetable to me", I thought.
"What is that row?" I asked.
"Those are flowers to attract bees", was the response.
"Yes right", I thought. I have learned much since that first visit.
To attract smaller bees/wasps even weeds with small flowers will be a
help. Weeds are native they will therefore probably attract the native
bee/wasp...one would think anyway.
Bill
PS: I have some weeds with small flowers growing in my cedar hedge-I used to
pull them out... I often wonder just what else I have 'missed'. I hope
you are also. There is much to be learned about gardening...pests and other
stuff.

Flowering lemon basil seems to be an attraction for at least
one bee. He's been coming back everyday for the last few
days and I normally don't see that feller until I've messed
with one particular lemon basil plant (which happens to be
flowering). The wasps seems to stick to the cucumber
flowers or some PigWeed (amaranthus) and other flowers.

Right now I'm keeping an eye on a Japanese yamato
cucumber plant. It's defined as "burpless". It doesn't look
much like the MarketMore or Pointsett 76 cucumbers. I'm
hoping the fruit will continue to grow. These yamato cukes
are growing long and skinny. I'm hoping they'll get some
more girth but if not I'll be happy just to get one fruit. The
first two I messed with never fruited. I had them in the
direct sun and I don't think cukes like the direct sun. They
seem to do better under some shade.

Something interesting:
RedRoot PigWeed starting to grow with a hungarian wax
pepper. I starting to see that redroot pigweed can be very
obnoxious. So I chopped the pigweed up that was in the
pot with the pepper. I tried to pull the pigweed out of the
pot but it seems to be rooted very well. So rather than really
mess things up I left it in. This is only one pepper plant in the
pot though and it has 7 peppers and is growing more as well.
Somewhere last year I read that redroot pigweed brings
nutrients up to the surface, and I'm wondering if this actually
helped the pepper plant.

I'm seeing where this can be an obnoxious plant though. I
don't recommend letting this things come to full bloom. :-/

I'm trying the 1 tablespoon of milk in a spray bottle with
maybe a quart of water sprayed on the underside of the
cuke leaves.

There anything that I can add that might help the cuke
grow fruits? This cuke didn't get the slow fertilizer, but
I have given it a dose of 15/30/15 stuff, which appears
to be really quick acting.

--
Jim Carlock
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