Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Mysterious Cucumber Ailment

This morning I went out to find one of our hanging basket cucumber plants in terrible shape. At least 75 percent of the plant just dried up and wilted away during the night. Strange stuff....any ideas?

7 comments:

DP Nguyen said...

Oh wow. I have no idea. I've never seen that before. Some weird disease, I am guessing. Ick! Weather change?

Anonymous said...

Cucumber mosaic virus maybe. That happened to my cukes last yr. The plant is destroyed over night.

Anonymous said...

It seems unlikely that it is mosaic virus. For one, I don't think mosaic virus thrives in extremely dry climates like Las Vegas. And second, mosaic virus causes the leaves to have a mottled yellow appeared and to have distorted growth.

Your plant looks wilted. Did the plant not have enough water? Too much? What did you do when you saw the plant like that? And what was the plant's reaction to your solution?

Anonymous said...

Also, do you see any evidence of beetle activity on your plants or have you seen any beetles hanging out?

Annie said...

I have no idea, but it is too bad because it was looking so good. Sorry to hear that. By the way, do you think it is getting to be too late to start planting some seeds for fall...I have been so busy and just have not got around to it yet. I still want to get going, but don't want to waist the water if it is too late. What do you think?

John said...

Thanks everyone for the comments and suggestions. By last night the entire plant had wilted away, so I just pulled it up.

Dp, Lola and Fern: The weather really hasn't changed that much, and none of the leaves were discolored or distorted in any way..they just dried up. Also, there were no beetles or bugs that I could find. As for watering, there was no deviation from its normal schedule. The other cucumber plant is doing fine.

When I pulled it up, I noticed that, in one place, the stem had an area inside that was very white and almost woodlike. I suspect this had something to do with the plant dying, but have no idea what it was.

Annie--I'm really not sure, but I think you would be cutting it close. Last year I had a grape tomato plant that was still producing in December when I pulled it up. Other plants, like eggplants and various herbs died off in mid to late November. If you could find seedlings somewhere I think you'd be fine.

Anonymous said...

When I pulled it up, I noticed that, in one place, the stem had an area inside that was very white and almost woodlike. I suspect this had something to do with the plant dying, but have no idea what it was.

Do you think it could be bacterial wilt transferred to your plant from a cucumber beetle?