Cucumbers - diseases and their control

Like any other plant, cucumbers often suffer from various diseases - infectious, fungal, bacterial. These diseases cause great damage to the culture, negating all the efforts of truck farmers and reducing yields.

In order to competently counter the danger and timely recognize it, you need to know about the possible diseases of cucumbers and combat them. In this article, we'll look at what diseases cucumbers have , and find out how to deal with them.

The main diseases of cucumbers and preparations from them

So, the most common are the following diseases:

  1. Powdery mildew affects cucumber whips most often. It looks like the diseased culture is as follows: the leaves and stems of cucumbers are covered with a white or rusty patch in the form of spots that eventually grow. Then the leaf begins to turn yellow and dry, and the fruiting ceases. Powdery mildew affects plants that suffer from a lack of moisture or heat, as well as an overabundance of nitrogen fertilizers. Against this disease, fungicides "Topaz", "Topsin", colloidal sulfur, copper oxychloride, folk remedies are used: mullein infusion, sour milk mixed in equal proportions with water, a solution of baking soda and laundry soap.
  2. Peronosporosis, or downy mildew , is also a dangerous fungal disease. It can be provoked by watering the plant with cold water, thickening of crops, non-observance of agricultural techniques. When peronosporose on the leaves of cucumbers appear small spots of light yellow color. Over time, their number increases, as does the size of the spots themselves, and the leaves become brown and wither. Downy powdery mildew can affect a plant at any stage of its development. As an "ambulance" in the detection of the first signs of this disease, stop any feeding and watering of cucumbers, and the plant is treated with a warm solution of copper chloride or Bordeaux fluid (a mixture of copper sulfate with freshly lime).
  3. Another ode to the disease of cucumbers, both greenhouse and cultivated in open ground conditions, is cladosporium . It affects the fruits and stems of the plant, which are covered with green-brown ulcers, a couple of days darkening and increasing in size. Leaves of cucumbers are covered with small specks, which dry up and collapse. For this cladosporium is often called a brown olive spot. The cause of the development of cladosporium is the spores of the fungus, which hibernates on plant remains of past years. To help cucumbers overcome this dangerous disease, which can spoil the whole harvest, you need to take the following. Stop watering for several days, during which try to raise the temperature (closing the greenhouse at night or covering plants with a film). It is required for sick cucumbers and treatment with special preparations: it can be "Oksihom", podzazol, 0,4% solution of copper chloride or 1% solution of Bordeaux liquid.
  4. White rot, or sclerotinia , is very easy to recognize. On the affected plant begin to appear white bodies of fungal origin, which then darken. The stems are covered with a continuous white coating, become slimy and soft, and then rot. As a treatment for this disease, it is necessary to cut the affected areas to healthy tissue, and cut the sections with charcoal. The nutrient solution (mixture of urea, copper sulfate, zinc sulphate and water) is also prescribed to sick cucumbers.
  5. When gray rot occurs, parts of the plant are covered with brown spots with a gray coating. This bacterial disease appears due to waterlogging and simultaneous lowering of temperature. If gray rot is found, all affected leaves, stems and fruits should be removed, and the sections treated with the fungicide "Bayleton" or "Rovral".

Now you know how to protect cucumbers from disease. And that such problems do not bother you and your planting, be sure to observe a crop rotation, do not plant cucumbers in the same place (they can be returned to the old bed no earlier than in 4 years), and water the plants regularly with warm water.