Time To Replace Cucumbers?

[applestar]

Growth has slowed way down now and female blossoms have become rare -- maybe needs more light -- though another female just finished blooming and looks like will develop a fruit at the top of the trellis on the window side.

[applestar]

Well, my H-19 Littleleafs have slowed down drastically as I mentioned before, and now many new female blossoms are failing to set fruit. It is still slowly being overcome by what appears to be some kind of mildew -- it doesn't look like powdery mildew which I'm familiar with, so maybe downy mildew. I have been clipping leaves off as they become useless rather than clipping off all affected leaves which woul basically defoliate all the vines. (I realize this would not solve the problem and the vines will remain infected, but it's the best I can do since I can't count on rapid foliar growth to replace the lost leaves....)

Another threat to the vine emerged -- one of our cats likes to lay on the FiOS box on the low bookshelf to the right of the plant and, to get to it, she jumps up from the windowsill. I found some new vine tips and side shoots wilting from being broken off -- I'm supposing she didn't quite make the jump and fell or was lazy and climbed on the tomato cage.

LAST STRAW was suspected since last fruit harvested had a tiny hole in it and DD discovered a caterpillar next to the harvested fruit on the counter -- she dispatched it without showing me.
-- Last night I noticed that the smaller of the two fruits that are next in line to be harvested (but hadn't been growing bigger at the same ratw as the other one) had what sppeared to be a bright lime green chewed up cucumber mash on its side. When I touched the fruit to examine it, it felt "hollow".

I examined it more closely this morning and it fell off in my hand -- it had a hole in the stem end:

Hole in stem end of "hollow" cuke fruit

I cut it open and found this mess and a larva

Pickleworm?

The thing is, I have never seen one of these in any cucumber I grew before. Is this a pickleworm? ...or maybe a melonworm?

[imafan26]

Yes, it is a pickle worm. Usually you will find a small hole on the fruit where they were laid by the moth. Covering the fruit with a newspaper tube or mesh bag helps. I get them once in a while but thankfully not that often.

I have a different variety of cucumber in my garden now callled Tendergreen. It looks like an English cucumber and gets quite long and is non-bitter. It is performing well and is actually resisting mildew much better than Suyo.

http://entnemdept.ufl.edu/creatures/veg/pickleworm.htm

[ReptileAddiction]

My cucumber is not doing well. It is covered with powdery mildew and has yet to actually set fruit. The vines are still only like a foot and a half tall. I am thinking I am just going to yank it. I am starting to question how viable cucumbers actually are in a container. I might try again in a few months when it warms up but cucumbers are so cheap and there are other things I would rather grow that cost a lot more in the store and will do much better in containers. I might be able to find a spot to grow some in the ground though.

[applestar]

It looks like some of the pickleworms managed to grow through full cycle to maturity. Found this one on the wall near the ceiling this morning, and DD caught another one last night and fed it to one of the cats

[ReptileAddiction]

Well on the bright side you actually got fruit.

I ended up yanking mine a few weeks ago and replacing with Kale because they were just not doing anything.

[rainbowgardener]

Yeah, even in Southern Calif, Nov is just not the season for cucumbers!

[ReptileAddiction]

Yes that is true. Mainly because the powdery mildew is SO much worse now. Come August-September is just decimates any squash related thing. I just pulled my still producing peppers yesterday.