Plant guide:ðĨ Cucumber
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Fungal
Bacterial Wilt on Cucumber Vines
Commonly affects: Cucumis sativus (Cucumber)
Individual leaves wilt during the day, then the whole vine collapses within days. Cutting a wilted stem and slowly pulling the cut ends apart produces a sticky, stringy bacterial ooze.
Potential Causes
- 1Erwinia tracheiphila bacteria, transmitted almost exclusively by cucumber beetle feeding
- 2Striped or spotted cucumber beetles carrying bacteria between plants
- 3Wounds from beetle feeding giving bacteria direct vascular entry
Solution Steps
- 1Remove and destroy affected vines immediately â there is no cure
- 2Control cucumber beetles aggressively from the seedling stage with row covers, removed at flowering
- 3Avoid working around plants after handling beetles
- 4Monitor remaining vines closely for early symptoms
Prevention Tip
Since no cucumber variety is fully resistant, controlling cucumber beetles from planting onward is the only real prevention for bacterial wilt.
