Bacterial wilt in cucumbers

[pepperhead212]

I have had problems with this forever - eventually, every non-resistant variety would succumb, which meant that one or more of the varieties of cucumber beetles was present. The only resistant variety that I've had success with is County Fair; Little Leaf is another that is supposed to be resistant, but it did not produce well for me in two trials.

This year, I am trying another that I saw listed in a few sites about controlling bacterial wilt - Wisconsin SMR 58 - not because it is resistant to the wilt, but that it is supposedly resistant to the cucumber beetles! Maybe not as attractive to them in one aspect or another? Does anyone else have experience with this? I am going to plant them scattered around, in SIPs, to see if they do well.

[brownrexx]

It will be interesting to hear how SMR58 performs for you. As you know, I also grow County Fair because I go the idea from you! Before I grew County Fair, I could barely get my cukes to produce a handful of cucumbers before they died. Now, I still get cucumber beetles but the plants survive long enough to give me more than enough cucumbers before they eventually die.

[friedgreen51]

I grow Wisconsin SMR58 every year. I like to make pickles and it is a great pickling cucumber. It is Monoecious so a good one to plant with all the Gynoecious hybrids. For me it is a vigorous heavy yielding plant with large leaves. As far as the cucumber beetle I have observed that it seems to stand up better to the beetles, thus less bacterial wilt. I do sprinkle Diatomaceous earth around all my plants and on the leaves. Heavy mulching with wheat straw helps protect plants as it is harder for the female beetle to lay eggs near a plant this is heavily mulched.

[Labradors]

I used to be able to grow wonderful cucumbers - until the cuke beetles found us. I grow Green Fingers which was so heavily infested in 2018 that I was surprised that the plants didn't wilt. The problem was that they caused so much damage by nibbling the plants and the cukes that the cukes were unusable and the plants stopped producing.

I keep looking for answers because growing under cover (as I did last year) is SUCH a pain and takes all the fun out of growing them. I read that they should be planted out later i.e. June 15 so that the beetles will cruise around and figure that there are no cukes around, so will go somewhere else to dine! I have used D.E. around the roots in previous years and I think it helped because a neighbor had beetle problems when I didn't - or maybe it was just luck. I'll be growing nasturtiums with my cukes this year because I have read that they can be a deterrent.

I will try the mulching too Friedgreen .

Linda

[pepperhead212]

Linda,

Something that you might want to try to keep a lot of those beetles off the cukes is Surround. It works much better than DE, as it sticks, even in light rain, though it has to be sprayed frequently, due to new growth, and you have to be sure to spray the undersides of the leaves.

[Labradors]

I would love to try "Surround" if I could find it here in Canada. At least the DE might help with any beetles hatching out of the ground.....

Linda

[MissS]

Thanks so much for the information on Wisconsin SMR58. I just picked up some seeds for it yesterday and was not sure that I was going to grow it this year or not. This is my first year growing at a community garden so I do expect that I will be plagued with some disease issues over there. In fact it has been a worry for me. I think that I will grow both Wisconsin SMR58 and County Fair and see how they do over there.

[BurgundySnail]

So, how did Wisconsin SMR 58 stand with beetles?

[pepperhead212]

I've had good luck with the SMR58, with good production, and the sort of spiny leaves and stems probably helped against the insects, though nothing seems to help against that spotted lanternfly. There were much fewer of them this year, maybe due to the heat. I didn't see any of the beetles this year, but I wasn't really looking.

[BurgundySnail]

I've had good luck with the SMR58, with good production, and the sort of spiny leaves and stems probably helped against the insects, though nothing seems to help against that spotted lanternfly. There were much fewer of them this year, maybe due to the heat. I didn't see any of the beetles this year, but I wasn't really looking.

I haven't seen lanternflies yet, but cucumber beetles were nuts this year. They finished cukes and then feasted on flowers and tomatoes!

I am very happy to hear about SMR58! will be picking those up. Thanks!