Farmers Weekly Review

I know you have probably just put your vegetable seeds and plants in the ground, and thoughts of those fresh, home-grown, sun-ripened vegetables are already on any gardener’s mind.

But there is a nemesis lurking, and I don’t mean that racoon that likes to “try” one bite of a tomato, but the devastating disease of bacterial wilt of all things in the cucurbit family — the cukes, the zukes, the melons, gourds and more.

Bacterial wilt is a one-and-done disease. Once plants contract it, the only solution is to pull that plant and start over if you have time. What is happening internally is the usual waterlike fluid coursing through the xylem (think arteries) and phloem (think veins) of our plants circulatory system, turns to muck.

More precisely a sticky, stringy texture. Imagine if our blood did that. As with anyone with a significant circulatory system disorder, their furthest extremities start to tell the tale first. It is the same with plants. The growing tip, the point furthest from where the plant comes out of the ground, is affected first.

The telltale signs are the name of the disease — wilt. Bacterial wilt. Those furthest leaves start to wilt, look as parched as a marathoner in the desert, and the plant slowly dies all the way back.

And additional insult to injury is usually you have just harvested the first perfect fruit. So, what is a gardener to do? Several things actually.

First, look to the agricultural scientist. Have any plants in this family been hybridized to resist this devastating circulatory disease? Well, yes! At least for cucumbers. The varieties County Fair and Arkansas Little Leaf show an almost complete resistance to bacterial wilt. The variety was developed through selective hybridization.

Both of these cukes are pickling varieties, but I have grown both, and they are dual-use. They make a fine salad cucumber. You will not find these varieties in the garden centers and big box stores, but definitely in most seed catalogs and online.

Unfortunately, out of all the cucurbit crops, these are the only ones with natural resistance. So, what is a gardener to do? My advice … hide, trap, or run! Not you, but your plants. There are always other strategies to try. And then there is chemical control, which we will get to later.

So, the hide strategy is what they can’t see, they can’t eat and share their bacterial wilt saliva. Using floating row covers is a great way to put your plants in protective custody. Floating row cover is usually used with a metal or PVC hoop, but can be gently laid over the crop needing the protection and secured with garden pins or rocks.

The challenge though is all of the cucurbits need to be pollinated; they really need it, because this entire family has male and female separate flowers. You can cover with floating row cover as soon as the plants emerge from the ground until flowers start to bloom; then uncover. Even if you do end up with bacterial wilt, it will be later in the season.

The second strategy follows the old adage that you don’t have to win a race to escape a bear chasing you, you just have to be faster than one person. Trap crops, as they are called, are plants that have been identified to be extremely attractive to a pest insect.

So attractive, that if you plant them nearby, the pest will be drawn to this less-desirable crop. In the case of the cucumber beetles, the trap crop is Blue Hubbard squash. Now if you like Blue Hubbard, this may not be the strategy for you.

If that is the case, then resort to Plan A and cover the Blue Hubbard. But if you don’t mind some plant sacrifice, plant six to eight Blue Hubbard squash at the corners of your home garden. If you are growing commercially, planting two Blue Hubbard squash at the end of each row is recommended.

The other non-chemical strategy to deter cucumber beetles and bacterial wilt is the run strategy. If you can’t be them, run “faster” than the beetles can come. The earlier you plant these crops, the worse cucumber beetle issues you will have. But do you really want to wait till the kids go back to school to have your first cuke? Uh … no.

Cucumber beetles overwinter as adults, so first thing on this fall’s checklist is to clean up the garden to eliminate overwinter sites for those adults. But now, it is a numbers game. Say you want eight cucumber plants total. Don’t plant them all at the same time; stagger the planting. Two seeds, now … then two weeks later, two more, and two weeks later. You get the picture.

So instead of the overwintering beetles having a huge bounty of new plants to feast on early in the planting season, they will have less. And when insects have less to feed on, they can’t make more generations as quickly. So instead of a giant explosion in their populations, there will be fewer. And your strategy can outrun their numbers, or at least try.

Finally, of course, you can use chemicals. But please. Ask us, the University of Illinois Extension. Don’t run to social media or your cousin’s half-sister’s boyfriend’s roommate who thinks he created a concoction that is safe. It probably isn’t or won’t work.

And I have to remind people when it comes to plants they are eating, follow the farmer’s strategy: Use the least amount and concentration that will have a tolerable effect. You still have a choice of using OMRI (Certified Organic) controls which include pyrethrins and Neem oil. And then there are several synthetic pesticides that you can use. The key is to always make sure to read the label before purchase.

Make sure the insect you are trying to control is listed, and it is also a chemical that can be used on food crops. If it is suitable for food, it will have a table that lists “Days to Harvest,” which means how many days need to pass after treatment before you harvest.

And when in doubt, reach out to me at [email protected] or 815 727 9296.