Cucumber drama!

My cucumber plants are huge - running up the trellis - bunches of beautiful flowers and as of today - two gorgeous little cucumbers! I was so excited, and then I noticed the spotty yellow leaves. What the hay??

My sad little cucumber leaf - infected with angular leaf spot.

Basically, it's a bacterial infection that can most likely be traced back to the seed. Infected seeds come from infected plants, and the bacteria will eventually spread to any of the cucumber plants in that bed. I have a couple of options. I can treat with a fungicide or prune the infected leaves back and hope for the best.

I chose pruning!

The recommendation is that you pull any infected plants, and check on the one's remaining to see if the infection is getting worse / spreading. The fruit is ok as long as the bacterial infection doesn't get on the fruit. As of right now, our fruit looks ok.

Yummy cucumber.

I am trying to be very careful about using anything stronger than Neem oil and Diatomaceous earth in our beds. If there's a infection, then we'll trash the plants and the seeds, and heal the dirt.

We can't replant cucumbers in that bed for at least two years, as the bacterial infection will live in the soil that long. We also won't be using those seeds in the future.

We had 4 cucumber plants, and I had to pull 2 of them. The other two - we'll keep an eye on them. If they become as bad as the first two, I'll have to pull them as well.

On the upside - we've learned a bit and will know better for next time. There are some things we can do to help alleviate our issues in the future:

• We won't put other plants in front of the cucumber plants - I think I planted the tomatoes too close to them and it caused moisture to get caught on both the cucumbers and the tomatoes.
• We won't use a sprinkler system - the bacteria can be splashed onto the plants from the soil - We didn't have a drip irrigation system set up yet, so I have been using an overhead sprinkler.
• Purchase of our seeds - I've been grabbing seed packets from everywhere. If you aren't 100% confident in your seed source, you could potentially purchase infected seeds. There are several reputable seed companies - and I will be purchasing my seeds directly from them in the future.
• Do NOT compost infected plants - these plants will be going into the trash can instead of my compost pile. The bacteria could infect huge amounts of our soil if it lives in my compost.
• Heal the soil with heat - Here's how:

1. Pull all the plants out of the infected area.
2. Water the soil until it's saturated.
3. Place two layers of clear greenhouse plastic or thick plastic sheeting over the bed.
4. Allow the plastic to solarize the soil for about six weeks.

In our current heat wave....we should be good to go. I'll check the soil temperature all the way to the bottom of the bed (these beds are on concrete) - I need it to get over 150 degrees to effectively kill the bacteria.

While that is pretty sucky - there is some good news! Our pepper plants are producing like crazy, and I pulled one of the cucumbers - it looks perfect. Also - four green tomatoes. We're having fried green tomatoes with dinner tonight!

Today's garden bounty.

The most important thing is to not get down because of the failures. Focus on the things that are doing well, learn, adapt, and overcome! Semper Fi Momma!