me against the cucumber beetles!! - Page 2

barkeater · February 7, 2008

If you are going to trellis you obviously won't get rooting along the stem. So, I suggest growing a burpless variety. Continue your method of trapping the beetles in the yellow plastic cup. Plus, start a spray program with Sevin, spraying the plant on a 7-10 day schedule until the cucumbers start forming.

I didn't like to spray the cucumber fruit directly, so when the cukes started producing, I would pick all the fruit off and then spray. The real small ones I'd sell as pickles.

The beetles mostly transmit the wilt by feeding near the base of the stem and on the roots right under the soil, where they hide during the heat of the day, so concentrate the spray at the base of the plant. It may not even be necessary to spray the rest of the vine, if the beetles were controlled by the earlier spraying.

gardengalrn · February 11, 2008

I had the best success when I got lazy and overwhelmed with an unknown weed. It grew like crazy and the cuke beetles LOVED it. They practically defoliated it all. I'm a little nervous about this year, being new to the zone and soil, etc. This past summer I spotted quite a few cuke beetles and stink bugs with not a garden for miles around. YIKES!!

Ruth_10 · February 12, 2008

Quote:

This past summer I spotted quite a few cuke beetles and stink bugs with not a garden for miles around. YIKES!!

We had asparagus beetles the first year we planted asparagus and there was no asparagus for miles around, either. Same with a lot of the other bugs. They must have other, wild plants they can live on but prefer our tender, juicy, nutritious garden plants.

February 11, 2008	#17
gardengalrn Tomatovillian™ Join Date: May 2006 Location: Kansas, zone 5 Posts: 524	I had the best success when I got lazy and overwhelmed with an unknown weed. It grew like crazy and the cuke beetles LOVED it. They practically defoliated it all. I'm a little nervous about this year, being new to the zone and soil, etc. This past summer I spotted quite a few cuke beetles and stink bugs with not a garden for miles around. YIKES!! __________________ ~Lori "Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be." -Abraham Lincoln

February 7, 2008	#16
barkeater Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: NE Kingdom, VT - Zone 3b Posts: 1,439	If you are going to trellis you obviously won't get rooting along the stem. So, I suggest growing a burpless variety. Continue your method of trapping the beetles in the yellow plastic cup. Plus, start a spray program with Sevin, spraying the plant on a 7-10 day schedule until the cucumbers start forming. I didn't like to spray the cucumber fruit directly, so when the cukes started producing, I would pick all the fruit off and then spray. The real small ones I'd sell as pickles. The beetles mostly transmit the wilt by feeding near the base of the stem and on the roots right under the soil, where they hide during the heat of the day, so concentrate the spray at the base of the plant. It may not even be necessary to spray the rest of the vine, if the beetles were controlled by the earlier spraying.