Skoorbmax
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Basically all my plants are dying. I need someone to hold me

The good news: My carrots are disease free, perfect. I have a big boy tomato plant that seems to be doing great also and looks very healthy. The bad news:

All of my cucumber varieties (M86, Straight8, and some unknown) went from perfect 10 days ago to now all infected with disease:
[img]https://i897.photobucket.com/albums/ac177/Skoorb100/problem2.jpg[/img]
[img]https://i897.photobucket.com/albums/ac177/Skoorb100/problem3.jpg[/img]
Even my pole beans have alot of discoloration/losing leaves, although this at the bottom--maybe just the leaves are old (up top it's good):
[img]https://i897.photobucket.com/albums/ac177/Skoorb100/problem4.jpg[/img]
My cherry tomato plants all have a LOT of dead leaves lower down on them and on one or two a lot of these "rust" spots:
[img]https://i897.photobucket.com/albums/ac177/Skoorb100/problem1.jpg[/img]

I'm no longer having bad dreams about these things, I know they are a lost cause. I want to know why this has happened. Of everyone else I have asked who has veggies all are fine other than one guy's cucumbers that look the same as mine. The tomatoes are still producing new foliage and may carry on for a good time producing a lot of fruit and the pole beans are still producing but the cucumbers are in dire straits; even the new leaves get yellow spots almost immediately.

I generally use a sprinkler for all these, but one of the cucumbers on my deck in a pot is actually under a cover and I only water its roots and it is also spotted up.

Is this my destiny, am I unable to grow cucumbers properly? I can deal with visible pests but disease seems a lot harder.

I used some box of tomato and vegetable fertilizer 4 weeks ago (I had some black edges on some tomatoes' leaves and I THINK it helped that). I put another dose down a few days ago.

kgall
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Location: New Hampshire

On the beans I cut off the dying leaves. We had more heat than they liked but once it cooled down they started producing again.

Someone else will have to comment on the rest.

I will say that any gardener who is learning will have challenges! I lost almost everything last year. I even lost my tomatoes to late blight. Within a week they were all gone! You have to just try to catch the diseases early and learn how to treat them. The moral of the story is don't give up!

Skoorbmax
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kgall wrote:On the beans I cut off the dying leaves. We had more heat than they liked but once it cooled down they started producing again.

Someone else will have to comment on the rest.

I will say that any gardener who is learning will have challenges! I lost almost everything last year. I even lost my tomatoes to late blight. Within a week they were all gone! You have to just try to catch the diseases early and learn how to treat them. The moral of the story is don't give up!
This is only my second year. It could be heat for the pole beans, we did have some fairly bad heat for us a couple of weeks ago...

Oh I forgot to mention my pepper plants, despite looking nice, have stopped flowering. I picked one clean a week back and no flowers since, but enough of these plants are living that I will definitely get back to this next year.

garden5
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My cucumbers go the same thing, but I'm not sure just what it is. It doesn't look like powdery mildew :?.

I wouldn't worry too much about the beans, mine got the same thing on their lower leaves, but still produced.

The spots on your tomato plant are a sign of septoria, a bacterial disease. To slow the spread, cull the infected leaves and remove them far from the garden. Also, water in the morning rather than at night.

Hope this helps.

Skoorbmax
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garden5 wrote:My cucumbers go the same thing, but I'm not sure just what it is. It doesn't look like powdery mildew :?.

I wouldn't worry too much about the beans, mine got the same thing on their lower leaves, but still produced.

The spots on your tomato plant are a sign of septoria, a bacterial disease. To slow the spread, cull the infected leaves and remove them far from the garden. Also, water in the morning rather than at night.

Hope this helps.
Thanks, you're right, definitely septoria.

kgall
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My peppers stop flowering when the are too wet. Not a problem for me this year!

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jal_ut
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I need someone to hold me
(((Hugs)))

cynthia_h
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Please add your location to your profile. If these plants are in northern California (for example), they're unlikely to be dying of the same cause(s) that are killing many plants in the mid-section of the continent (e.g., Illinois).

I'm sorry you're having such a bad time with your garden. Maybe planting a fall garden now will be something to look forward to? My own summer garden has been a complete bust, so the fall garden will have to do for me....

Cynthia H.
Sunset Zone 17, USDA Zone 9

Skoorbmax
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cynthia_h wrote:Please add your location to your profile. If these plants are in northern California (for example), they're unlikely to be dying of the same cause(s) that are killing many plants in the mid-section of the continent (e.g., Illinois).

I'm sorry you're having such a bad time with your garden. Maybe planting a fall garden now will be something to look forward to? My own summer garden has been a complete bust, so the fall garden will have to do for me....

Cynthia H.
Sunset Zone 17, USDA Zone 9
Done; NY State.

Canadian Farmer Guy
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My Mom's cucumber plant has yellow spots too.
Does anybody know what this stuff is?

CFG

tedln
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Your cucumbers look pretty typical for my cucumbers in Texas this time of year. They usually continue cranking out new cucumbers while the plants look horrible. I've always thought the cucumber (cucurbit including squash, melons and others) leaves are simply susceptible to a wide variety of fungus and viral diseases. Many commercial products exist which are supposed to help, but since they are chemicals; I don't use them. You can also select varieties to plant which may have some resistance to the problem. Many people use home remedies which may or may not help. I personally use the diluted milk treatment with success. Don't give up on cucumbers just because they get a little ugly looking. I typically remove the leaves as they yellow. I don't think it helps the plant, but it makes them look nicer.

Ted

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rainbowgardener
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Agree with a lot of the above... it's been a pretty tough season in much of the country. Some places hot and wet, some hot and dry, but most everyone has had excessive heat to deal with. Beans seem to be one of the crops that are vulnerable to this.

I would try the milk solution on the cucumbers (AFTER removing the damaged leaves). Type milk solution into the Search the Forum Keyword box to find specific directions for it.

The bottom leaves on the tomato usually die off anyway. Just keep removing and disposing of everything that looks bad. My tomato plants now have a single bare stem for at least the first two feet, then a ton of healthy greenery on top. Looks a little weird, but they are still producing.

If you are in hot and humid, be very careful about watering. Water in the AM and water the soil, not the plants. Water deeply and no oftener than you have to. The humidity contributes to all the fungal problems.

Hang in there... as was suggested, think about a fall garden; it may go a lot better. Where I am anyway, suddenly when we get to Sept all the excess humidity goes out of the air..

Skoorbmax
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Is a fall garden really feasible in NY state? I planted a few bush beans 3 weeks ago but otherwise I think my first frost is going to come too early to really do much...

My wife picked a truckload of green beans yesterday. I think overall the beans are doing ok. The japanese beetles were a true hassle but they left as abruptly as they came at the end of July.

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stella1751
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Skoorbmax wrote:Is a fall garden really feasible in NY state?
I planted peas in Wyoming in the middle of July. Our first frost date here is September 22, but peas can take some cold.

I also planted peas in Wyoming on August 2 when one of the beds planted in the middle of July did not come up because my dog decided the nice fluffy soil was his sandbox. I don't have high hopes for the second planting, but peas make a great cover crop, a cleanser, so I can always turn them into the soil if it looks like they won't produce.

Re: Your cucumbers. Is it possible they're just tapped? Like Tedlin said, that's standard for him this time of the year. When I am so fortunate as to have cucumbers started by the end of May, they look pretty sorry by the end of August :-)

Skoorbmax
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When I am so fortunate as to have cucumbers started by the end of May, they look pretty sorry by the end of August
Why is that, though? Why is it that these plants may have a lifespan even less than the frost dates...? I did put these in in May (started seedlings end of April indoors) but the first actual Cucumber was around July 14-15.

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stella1751
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Skoorbmax wrote: Why is that, though? Why is it that these plants may have a lifespan even less than the frost dates...? I did put these in in May (started seedlings end of April indoors) but the first actual Cucumber was around July 14-15.
I'm not certain. I think they're a short-season crop. Whenever I see "Plant once every two weeks to keep yourself in [whatever] all summer long" on the back of a seed package, I feel comfortable that I'll get at least something from the plants :lol: That's what it says on the back of most cucumbers and beans packages. Squash, too.

garden5
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I don't really think that it's the literal life-span of the crop, it's more likely diseases and pests that shorten the life-span of the plant.

Skoorbmax
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If electricity was free I'd just grow cucumbers inside with grow lights. They'd be beautiful! I'd have to hand pollinate, but it's not really a problem with those.

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Gary350
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After 40 years of planting a garden you learn what to expect. After July the garden slows down and hot weather or blight might kill it. Once the plants produce their fruit some of them just naturally die.

Beans are a 65 day crop after the first crop they might produce a small crop before is gets hot. Once it gets extremely hot and dry the beans are finished. My beans are all brown and look terrible I am going to pull them up and put them in the compost this weekend. I will probably plant a winter crop in this row next month maybe turnip greens or swiss chard.

Corn it about 65 to 75 day crop. After you pick corn it needs to be cut down. I plant my second crop of beans where the corn was. My beans are up I had to water every day but they were up in 2 days. It is so hot and dry the beans will grow very slow but when the weather turns cool they will grow faster. I hope they make a crop of beans before it frost. I can throw a tarp over them at night to protect them until they produce beans.

Potatoes are a longer crop if you got them planted early they should be ready to dig up about now. Blight killed my potatoes but I planted more last week.

Tomatoes will last until frost kills them. When it gets extremely hot tomatoes slow down. Once the weather turns cool tomatoes will do fine again. Blight is killing my tomatoes I have been spraying them every week and so far so good but I think I am loosing the battle.

Melons and a 120 day crop once they produce they are finished.

Squash will produce all summer too if something does not kill them.

Okra is slow to grow and it does fine in just about any soil. I starts producing about mid July and produces until frost kills it. Hot dry weather has not effect on this crop it actually seems to do better the hotter and dryer it gets.

Peppers. All peppers seem to grow slow at first. The plants start producing peppers about July and will produce until they are killed by frost.

One thing we use to do on the farm when I was growing up was to plant a large enough first crop to get a years supply of food from the first harvest. If blight or hot weather kills the crop then so what. I always plant enough tomatoes to can about 100 pints and 20 quarts in mason jars by mid July. If blight or hot weather kills my tomatos I have a year supply in mason jars. I sure do love having garden tomatoes until frost. One year I had tomatoes until Dec 31 I kept them covered every night to protect then from frost.

The folks that live up north where the weather is cooler will have better luck with their garden this time of the year. Here in the south is gets so hot and dry my garden suffers pretty bad in July. I have to get my garden planted early so I can pick my harvest by the first or second week of July.

Don't fertilize your plants in extremely hot dry weather it will kill them.

garden5
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Gary350 wrote:After 40 years of planting a garden you learn what to expect. After July the garden slows down and hot weather or blight might kill it. Once the plants produce their fruit some of them just naturally die.

Beans are a 65 day crop after the first crop they might produce a small crop before is gets hot. Once it gets extremely hot and dry the beans are finished. My beans are all brown and look terrible I am going to pull them up and put them in the compost this weekend. I will probably plant a winter crop in this row next month maybe turnip greens or swiss chard.

Corn it about 65 to 75 day crop. After you pick corn it needs to be cut down. I plant my second crop of beans where the corn was. My beans are up I had to water every day but they were up in 2 days. It is so hot and dry the beans will grow very slow but when the weather turns cool they will grow faster. I hope they make a crop of beans before it frost. I can throw a tarp over them at night to protect them until they produce beans.

Potatoes are a longer crop if you got them planted early they should be ready to dig up about now. Blight killed my potatoes but I planted more last week.

Tomatoes will last until frost kills them. When it gets extremely hot tomatoes slow down. Once the weather turns cool tomatoes will do fine again. Blight is killing my tomatoes I have been spraying them every week and so far so good but I think I am loosing the battle.

Melons and a 120 day crop once they produce they are finished.

Squash will produce all summer too if something does not kill them.

Okra is slow to grow and it does fine in just about any soil. I starts producing about mid July and produces until frost kills it. Hot dry weather has not effect on this crop it actually seems to do better the hotter and dryer it gets.

Peppers. All peppers seem to grow slow at first. The plants start producing peppers about July and will produce until they are killed by frost.

One thing we use to do on the farm when I was growing up was to plant a large enough first crop to get a years supply of food from the first harvest. If blight or hot weather kills the crop then so what. I always plant enough tomatoes to can about 100 pints and 20 quarts in mason jars by mid July. If blight or hot weather kills my tomatos I have a year supply in mason jars. I sure do love having garden tomatoes until frost. One year I had tomatoes until Dec 31 I kept them covered every night to protect then from frost.

The folks that live up north where the weather is cooler will have better luck with their garden this time of the year. Here in the south is gets so hot and dry my garden suffers pretty bad in July. I have to get my garden planted early so I can pick my harvest by the first or second week of July.

Don't fertilize your plants in extremely hot dry weather it will kill them.

I hear ya, Gary. I'm starting to get a feel for the seasonal progression of my garden as well. Most notable is the early fall bringing powdery mildew to all my squash. Hopefully the preventive milk-sprays will reduce this.

FieldofFlowers
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Our cucumbers look like this too. :cry: It starts with a few specks of powdery mold/ yellow spots on the upper (mold on the lower) parts of the leaves, then kills the leaves, then the stems, then the whole vine.

Grandma calls it "the vines drying up." and claims that end of July/ August is when it happens. I guess she is right. I just wish I could defy it...

We don't drink milk. Grandma only gets the skim milk kind if she gets it at all, or mixes the powdered kind. I need another option to combat the mold.

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rainbowgardener
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Powdered milk or skim milk works just fine for the milk solution. Just mix it up, add a tablespoon of yoghurt for more lactobacillus cultures and let it sit for a few hours at room temperature.



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