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Cucumber plant needs help!
Laurie shell
Posts: 1
My cucumber plant produces fine looking fruits but the leaves have recently developed white spots and holes around the outer edges. I recently had a spider mite problem and I sprayed all the plants in my garden with a diluted rosemary oil mixture. It seemed to stop the mites but it looks like the spots on the cucumber are still moving to other leaves on the plant. Everything I've read online says it's powdery mildew but from the pictures I've seen it looks different than what's on my plant. I have a balcony container garden and all my plants are potted, idk if that would have anything to do with anything. Help!!????
Last edited: 01 August 2017 19:08:50
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Those look like scorch marks and there's a sort of pattern to them ... could they have been sprayed and then burned through the droplets by strong sunlight?
Otherwise the plants look remarkably healthy
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
This really doesn't look like powdery mildew which usually starts as round white spots on the leaves. Later the leaves turn yellow and then brown if the infection is significant. Holes in leaves tend to be insect or environmental damage. Try shaking the leaves over a sheet of white paper and see if anything falls off. If you see little black dots on the paper that are moving, you still have some mites.
Spider mites tend to suck on the leaves resulting in a yellow or golden color. I am not sure what would chew all the way through unless it's a beetle of some kind. I would say that it's unusual for a plant to have a significant incest infestation and still look healthy overall except for holes in the leaves. I would remove and carefully inspect one of the damaged leaves to see if you can see any insects present.
This is what I used If I don't know what is causing the damage,
Bug B Gon 32 oz. Concentrate Lawn and Garden Insect Killer
http://www.homedepot.com/p/Ortho-Bug-B-Gon-32-oz-Concentrate-Lawn-and-Garden-Insect-Killer-0175810/203686789
The label says 3 days to harvest for cucumbers which means that you should harvest any crop that is close to being ready before spraying. Of course, wash well before eating. This is less of an issue with a crop that is going to be peeled before eating.
If you do apply something like this, watch to make sure that new leaves are not showing the same damage. It is usually a good idea to remove any infected leaved unless this would strip the plant of too much foliage. In that case, just remove leaved that are yellowing and starting to die. They will not survive anyway so it's no loss to the plant.
LMHmedchem
Last edited: 01 August 2017 20:58:54