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greenstubbs
- Senior Member
- Posts: 274
- Joined: Thu Sep 09, 2010 6:41 pm
- Location: Far Upper Alabama
Cukes Ugly Skin
I have this one in a 19 gal tub and has been doing good all year. I have had a couple that have turned out like this with this whiteish brown dried out skin. You can also see some dark brown stuff which actually looks like some kind of crystals that easily knock off with your fingers. The fruit inside has been fine, it's just this ugly skin. What's going on here with this? I'm in Reno at 5200' for what it's worth.
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It looks like damage from mites. What you are seeing is the scarring left by the mites feeding when the fruit was very young. As the fruit grows the scars become more apparent. You usually can see mite damage and maybe the mites on the leaves. Spider mites are the most common, but other mite species may be at work, I have problems with broad mites, which are not easily seen and russet mites which are easier to detect. To fix the damage, you need to control the mites on the plant. It is not an easy task. The problem with killing mites are that you will probably need to use and oil and that is hard to do when the temperatures are high. You could use kaolin clay, or water to blast them off. Since mites are spiders you would needam to use a miticide on the plants.
I usually start with water and isolating or destroying really badly infested plants, especially if the infestation is confined to one plant. It is the better choice than to let it spread to the rest of the plants. The other plants still have to be treated since mites can travel on the wind and they can crawl up to other plants. I prefer to use sulfur than oils. If I can get wettable sulfur, I usually use that. It needs to be sprayed weekly, unless it rains, then it has to be reapplied after rain. If I cannot find sulfur, I use 3in1 spray. It contains sulfur and pyrethrins. The pyrethrins, however, will kill beneficial insects and can lead to a resurgence in pests later on because the beneficial insects are also killed. Neem gives me a headache, so I do have to wait at least a month after sulfur and the temperature has to be below 88 degrees for me to use ultra fine horticultural oil. I have not found soaps to be very effective and soap damages my pepper plants. I try to make sure the plants are watered in hot weather and I do blast the undersides of the leaves every day that I water. Usually, in hot dusty and humid weather, it takes a good hard rain to finally get rid of them. Sometimes, if the problem is really big, I just pull all of the plants and wait for better weather. Sometimes, it just does not pay to try to fight mother nature. Bagging fruit helps against other pests like fruit flies, but does not usually help with mites since the damage is being done while the fruit is an embryo in the flower. You would have to spray the flower and hand pollinate.
https://www.unce.unr.edu/publications/f ... fs9605.pdf
I usually start with water and isolating or destroying really badly infested plants, especially if the infestation is confined to one plant. It is the better choice than to let it spread to the rest of the plants. The other plants still have to be treated since mites can travel on the wind and they can crawl up to other plants. I prefer to use sulfur than oils. If I can get wettable sulfur, I usually use that. It needs to be sprayed weekly, unless it rains, then it has to be reapplied after rain. If I cannot find sulfur, I use 3in1 spray. It contains sulfur and pyrethrins. The pyrethrins, however, will kill beneficial insects and can lead to a resurgence in pests later on because the beneficial insects are also killed. Neem gives me a headache, so I do have to wait at least a month after sulfur and the temperature has to be below 88 degrees for me to use ultra fine horticultural oil. I have not found soaps to be very effective and soap damages my pepper plants. I try to make sure the plants are watered in hot weather and I do blast the undersides of the leaves every day that I water. Usually, in hot dusty and humid weather, it takes a good hard rain to finally get rid of them. Sometimes, if the problem is really big, I just pull all of the plants and wait for better weather. Sometimes, it just does not pay to try to fight mother nature. Bagging fruit helps against other pests like fruit flies, but does not usually help with mites since the damage is being done while the fruit is an embryo in the flower. You would have to spray the flower and hand pollinate.
https://www.unce.unr.edu/publications/f ... fs9605.pdf
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greenstubbs
- Senior Member
- Posts: 274
- Joined: Thu Sep 09, 2010 6:41 pm
- Location: Far Upper Alabama
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applestar
- Mod
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- Joined: Thu May 01, 2008 7:21 pm
- Location: Zone 6, NJ (3/M)4/E ~ 10/M(11/B)
I agree with imafan. These cucumbers look very much like the way pepper and tomato fruits look Ike when heavily infested by mites.
It is particularly relevant that mites are so microscopically tiny that their infestation tends to occur in concentrated clusters — they have teeny tiny legs and cannot travel far, AND their impulse is to head up to the tip of the branch they are on, so they often manage to exist in isolation, depending on the growth habit of the plant.
... Why wouldn’t you believe what imafan said? ...
...elaborate on description of what you are seeing as ‘crystals’ —what I’m seeing are the russetting damage mites cause and as imafan said, developmental magnification/engorgement of scars resulting in “alligator skin” pattern.
It is particularly relevant that mites are so microscopically tiny that their infestation tends to occur in concentrated clusters — they have teeny tiny legs and cannot travel far, AND their impulse is to head up to the tip of the branch they are on, so they often manage to exist in isolation, depending on the growth habit of the plant.
... Why wouldn’t you believe what imafan said? ...
...elaborate on description of what you are seeing as ‘crystals’ —what I’m seeing are the russetting damage mites cause and as imafan said, developmental magnification/engorgement of scars resulting in “alligator skin” pattern.
