Posted on 08/01/2020 6:05:50 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
“It looks like I set fire to the leaf and a slow burn is happening.”
Are they truning brown and shriveling up and getting ‘crispy?’
If so, that’s from over-watering which is smothering the roots.
Cut back on watering (can’t help the rain, of course!) and see if things improve. If the plants are heavily mulched, pull back the mulch from around the main stem of the plant to let the soil dry out.
Bugs that bother cucumbers are cucumber beetles, squash bugs and squash vine borers, but I don’t think that is the problem.
Disease issues could include: Anthracnose, leaf spot and blight can all cause the foliage of cucumber plants to turn brown and die.
If you think it might be that, then I would use a copper spray (it’s organic) on the leaves that still look good and see if the plant gets some relief.
Good Luck!
Thank you so much for your reply and help!
Oddly enough, it doesn’t seem to be effecting the actual cucumbers, only the leaves which will eventually die (I assume) and any cucs will die. The leaves are sort of spotty in the “fire damage” and not the entire leaf!
I tried to find info on diseases online and it just seems like some of of one disease applies and another disease applies as well.
It’s always something with my gardening! It’s like a full time job!! LOL
I’m seeing a lot of disease this season here in SW Wisconsin. We had such a wet Spring/Early Summer and that is just what the diseases and bugs love.
I always say I’ll take a drought year over a year that’s too wet when it comse to my garden. My food production is down quit a bit this season, but luckily, I know how to get to the grocery store. ;)
I told my husband that I have a new solution to the plagues in my garden- farmers markets!!
OK.
I encountered several, what looks like tomato hornworms on my potato plants. Something was eating the leaves right off them stripping them to stalks.
I thought it was the colorado potato beetle, and started looking for them and encountered my first hornworm.
Weird thing is, I have tomato plants and those are not touched yet.
Is there another kind of caterpillar that looks like a hornworm? Why would they go for my potatoes and not my tomatoes?
I’m looking for onion seeds for red, white, and yellow onions, that are long day onions with good long term storage.
They need to be able to grow in a northern climate. I will start them indoors and transplant the seedlings.
What are good varieties for those criteria?
I tried searching but there are so many and not all catalogs give all the info I need.
I have yet to see a Tomato Hornworm on a POTATO plant, but potatoes and tomatoes and eggplant ARE in the same family, Solanaceae, so I guess it COULD happen...but I doubt it. Mother Nature is pretty specific when it comes to who eats what in the cultivated garden.
All you can do at this point is kill them all when you see them. I know, ICK! It involves a lot of, ‘squishyness.’ Do you have any teen boys in the area or still at home? They relish killing bugs in my experience with my three. ;)
No hornworms for me this season, but I have had a few Colorado Potato Beetles in my ‘volunteer’ potatoes, while Beau has had NONE down in the lower garden where he planted 15 pounds of seed potatoes.
OMG! 30,000 pound of potatoes coming right up! (Maybe I should move a few beetles down there? LOL!)
I forget where you live? Are you wanting to plant them as a fall crop? Do you still have enough growing season left or are you planning ahead for Spring, 2021?
They’re out of stock now, but I plant these onion sets from Jung’s in the Spring:
https://www.jungseed.com/category/s?keyword=onion+sets
We live in NH so need long day onions. Id like to try starting the plants from seeds in the spring. I hear they are less likely to go to seed and you can get them in early enough to get a good crop.
I realize this is the time to be harvesting onions so that seeds and sets are not available until the crop comes in. I had a whole row of red onions I planted from sets go to seed. It was the red onions, for which I am grateful cause the yellow and white ones seen easier to find.
Those worms are DEFINITELY tomato hornworms. There is no mistaking those vermin and what they do to a plant.
I think I planted my potatoes where the previous owner had tomatoes two years ago.
I did find a few of the suckers on my tomatoes, too, and I found about 4 that had the parasitic wasp eggs on them, so I left them alone.
All told I must have gotten rid of 24 of those disgusting creatures. Much longer and I would not have had a crop at all.
I have read online that using a blacklight (UV) flashlight, at night will help find them. Apparently, they glow when hit with the blacklight and you can find them much easier.
Hunting TOMATO HORNWORMS in the Garden at night with a BLACKLIGHT
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCj5BsVHTvU
Apparently, the blacklight shows up scorpions, too. So they would be good for someone living in the SW.
How can you tell when potato plants are ready to harvest?
Mine are looking pretty sad right now cause of the hornworm damage, but still there’s got to be some way.
I have Kennebunk, Superior, and Red Pontiac potatoes. And I even marked the rows so i know which ones are which!!!!
BTW, I planted basil among my tomatoes and marigolds along the outside of the patch on a couple sides. They are supposed to repel hornworms and I did not find any in those areas.
Next spring I am doing massive seed starting with herbs and marigolds for vermin repellent and double duty for the herbs for saving.
“...and I found about 4 that had the parasitic wasp eggs on them, so I left them alone.”
That’s a horrible way to die, but I’ll make an exception for the hornworms, LOL!
You can harvest your potatoes as soon as the blooms have dried up and dropped off, if you want. Those are the ‘new potatoes’ and there is nothing better, IMHO. Do a ‘test dig’ and if they’re not as large as you want, keep them in the ground for a few more weeks. I’d cut back on watering and let whatever rain comes your way be enough.
I’ve kept potatoes in the ground up until our first hard freeze with no problems. (Southern Wisconsin)
As for onion SEED, I would still recommend Jung’s (or others) and the varieties: ‘Candy’ for sweet yellow, ‘Ailsa Craig’ for regular yellow, ‘Redwing’ for red. I’ve never grown a white onion, but ‘Ringmaster’ or ‘Sterling’ are long-day whites.
We used to get our onion sets (at Jung’s) from Dixondale Farms and they never disappointed! :)
I love marigolds. A new favorite is ‘Fireball’ and I like the ‘Bolero’ series as well.
Some of the potato plants have been stripped bare of their leaves and I thought I might as well dig those up and see what I got.
If the potato is going to use energy to replace the leaves, I don’t want to lose potato quantity or quality from it.
I have heard other folks say that leaving potatoes in the ground is not good for them. I guess I’ll try some of each and see how it pans out.
Are those varieties of onions good for long storage?
I was going to try Cortland.
If they were developed IN Cortland, they would be perfect for this climate. I know Cortland apples come from that area and they are fantastic.
I used to live in the CNY area where Cortland is part of, so I know the climate and growing conditions.
Yes. All are long day, good storage onions.
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