Any help would be greatly appreciated. We are growing our pickling cucumbers in containers/with trellises this year and picked Boston Pickling Cucumbers and Titus F1 Pickling Cucumbers. We follow a pretty structured watering and feeding/soil amendment schedule. Things have been going well.

My most mature container of Boston Pickling cucumbers was doing great and loving it's trellis. All of the sudden last week, the plants started to VERY rapidly deteriorate. I noticed very small yellowish spotting on the leaves, and started studying what it could be. By later that afternoon, the bottom-most leaves on every plant in that container had even more spotting, edges were yellowing and deteriorating and were really, really drooping and wilting. Nothing wrong with the vines at all. *I did look at dozens of photos and watched some videos from trusted sources. I noticed definite signs of tiny chew marks on the underside of the leaves as well. The symptoms really matched the damage done by Spider Mites, with a possible bit of mildew. So, I started treating the plants with Neem Oil (top and underside of leaves, pretty much coating entire plant).

Since then, the leaves are NOT wilted and drooping like they were. That part is better. But now, I'm left with a lot of residual spotting and brown, dried out edges. I'm now wondering if the problem is both Spider Mites AND angular leaf spot. So I've been rotating the Need Oil with a copper based fungicide (i rotate them but only apply one or the other every 3ish days). When I try to research, it seems that my plants match the photos for several different possible problems, both fungal and pest related. I don't know if what I'm seeing now is just the damage resulting from Spider Mites, or if there's something else going on (like angular leaf spot). ANY help would be appreciated! Thank you all so much!

Those leaves show early stage of angular leaf spot (ALS). They will go away on their own with 10-14 days of dry weather but since we cannot control weather all you can do is manage the infection: avoid wetting the leaves when watering the plant, spray a copper-based fungicide (IE Bordeaux mixture) every couple of weeks, use a low nitrogen fertilizer and if possible switch to a resistant cultivar in the future. Eureka, Jackson and Transamerica are all ALS resistant. Needless to say it would be better if you could destroy the plants at the end of the season: back when I grew cucumbers I just threw them on the burn pile but you may not have this option.

The wilting is pretty common with cucurbits grown in containers, especially when temperatures start picking up. You should try and water the plants more often: twice a day in the hot season is usually about right.

If you have already applied a copper fungicide you can stop now. You are only making the company making it happy.
Reapply every couple of weeks and you will be fine.

Regarding spider mites: you can spot them easily with a cheap magnifying glass. The golden rule is if you don't see them, they aren't there.
Neem oil is kinda like the organic version of the Old West snake oil: it cures all ailments or none according to whom you ask. Guess to which party I belong.

ElPolloDiablo said:Those leaves show early stage of angular leaf spot (ALS). They will go away on their own with 10-14 days of dry weather but since we cannot control weather all you can do is manage the infection: avoid wetting the leaves when watering the plant, spray a copper-based fungicide (IE Bordeaux mixture) every couple of weeks, use a low nitrogen fertilizer and if possible switch to a resistant cultivar in the future. Eureka, Jackson and Transamerica are all ALS resistant. Needless to say it would be better if you could destroy the plants at the end of the season: back when I grew cucumbers I just threw them on the burn pile but you may not have this option.

The wilting is pretty common with cucurbits grown in containers, especially when temperatures start picking up. You should try and water the plants more often: twice a day in the hot season is usually about right.

If you have already applied a copper fungicide you can stop now. You are only making the company making it happy.

Reapply every couple of weeks and you will be fine.

Regarding spider mites: you can spot them easily with a cheap magnifying glass. The golden rule is if you don't see them, they aren't there.
Neem oil is kinda like the organic version of the Old West snake oil: it cures all ailments or none according to whom you ask. Guess to which party I belong.

THANK YOU!!!!! That is so, so so helpful. I will check on the spider mites. But I am so glad to have some confirmation on the Angular Leaf Spot. I treated them yesterday with a copper based fungicide (from Southern Ag). So you don't think I need to re-apply? Or re-apply in ten days?

I can absolutely burn the plants at the end of season. I'm honestly more excited about my Titus F1 variety anyways. Of course, the Bonnie Plants profile for the Boston seedlings says they're "disease resistant" plants. I disagree and will try both of your suggestions next year.

The people who make Neem Oil seem to have done a good job in their marketing, because everyone seems to think it's the best stuff on the planet. I don't have an opinion one way or another because I haven't used it enough.

EvieM27 said:


THANK YOU!!!!! That is so, so so helpful. I will check on the spider mites. But I am so glad to have some confirmation on the Angular Leaf Spot. I treated them yesterday with a copper based fungicide (from Southern Ag). So you don't think I need to re-apply? Or re-apply in ten days?

I can absolutely burn the plants at the end of season. I'm honestly more excited about my Titus F1 variety anyways. Of course, the Bonnie Plants profile for the Boston seedlings says they're "disease resistant" plants. I disagree and will try both of your suggestions next year.

The people who make Neem Oil seem to have done a good job in their marketing, because everyone seems to think it's the best stuff on the planet. I don't have an opinion one way or another because I haven't used it enough.

Bordeaux mixture (and all other copper-based fungicides) need to be reapplied every fortnight to maintain its effectivenes. In case of heavy rain they must be reapplied weekly. More frequent applications are not needed.

Boston Pickling is a very old (pre-WWI) and much beloved commercial cultivar and was improved around 1950 through selection and hybridization to provide limited resistance to cucumber scale and especially tobacco mosaic virus. That's the "disease resistance" Bonnie Plants speak about, but unìfortunately it's not ALS resistant.
Modern cultivars like Transamerica have a veritable lithany of disease resistances and can be grown almost everywhere with minimal use of pesticides. Even I, a well known lover of hierlooms, am switching to modern cultivars because of the excellent disease resistance.

I think Titus is actually a gherkin, meaning the smaller and crunchier brother of the cucumber. It's much in demand nowadays and it's extremely widespread in Eastern Europe. And if they grow it, it means it's good: they know a thing or two about growing vegetables there.