Frost-tender. Start indoors 2 to 3 weeks before your last frost; plant out 1 to 2 weeks after your last frost; sow outdoors up to 2 weeks after your last frost; sow in fall 11 to 12 weeks before your first fall frost. First harvest 50 to 70 days from sowing.
What you'll see: Yellow beetles with black stripes or spots chew seedlings, leaves and flowers. They spread bacterial wilt, which kills cucumbers and melons.
Prevent
Cover seedlings with row cover and seal the edges; remove it at flowering so bees can reach the blooms.
Clear weeds and plant debris where adults spend the winter.
Mulch with straw around established plants.
Organic options
Knock beetles into soapy water on small plantings.
Kaolin clay on the leaves deters feeding but does not kill beetles; apply it before damage builds.
Conventional options
Several garden insecticides are labeled for cucumber beetles; check the crop is listed. Spray early or late in the day to spare bees.
What you'll see: Leaves wilt in the sun, perk up overnight, then wilt for good, and the whole vine dies. Cucumber beetles carry the bacteria from plant to plant.
Prevent
Keep cucumber beetles off young plants with row cover until flowering.
Grow cucumber varieties sold as resistant.
Pull wilted plants promptly.
Organic options
Control cucumber beetles early in the season; that is what protects the plants.
Conventional options
None. No spray cures bacterial wilt once a plant has it.
Photo: “Powdery mildew 9” by Dmitry Brant, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (cropped). The cropped version is shared under the same licence.
Powdery mildewDisease
What you'll see: White, powdery patches on the tops of leaves and on stems. Leaves yellow and dry, and fruit may ripen poorly.
Prevent
Grow resistant varieties.
Give plants sun and space for air flow.
Remove badly infected leaves, and clear debris after harvest.
Organic options
Sulfur or potassium bicarbonate, from the first spots. Sulfur can burn some vine crops in heat, and never use it near an oil spray.
Neem oil. Look for OMRI Listed products.
Conventional options
Myclobutanil or propiconazole, if the crop is on the label.
Bee caution: Don't spray open flowers. Spray in the late evening, when bees aren't flying.
What you'll see: Yellow patches on top of leaves, often boxed in by the veins, with gray to purple fuzz underneath; on shallots, whitish-gray growth on older leaves. Leaves brown and die, worst in cool, wet weather.
Prevent
Grow resistant varieties; basil sold as downy mildew resistant holds up far better.
Space plants, trellis vines and water at the base so leaves dry fast.
Remove and destroy infected plants promptly.
Organic options
Copper protects cucumber and melon leaves best when used before the disease arrives. Look for OMRI Listed products.
Conventional options
Chlorothalonil or mancozeb on vine crops, if labeled. On basil, home-garden sprays work poorly; grow resistant varieties.
Bee caution: Don't spray open flowers. Spray in the late evening, when bees aren't flying.
What you'll see: Sunken spots: tan to dark brown on cucumber and melon leaves and fruit, small purple-edged spots on raspberry canes. In wet weather the spots can ooze pink spore masses.
Prevent
Grow vine crops in a new bed each year and clear plant debris after harvest.
Water at the base, not overhead, so leaves stay dry.
Thin raspberry canes in winter for air flow and destroy the prunings.
Organic options
Remove spotted leaves, fruit and canes.
Copper fungicide, started when spots first appear in wet weather. Look for OMRI Listed products.
Conventional options
Chlorothalonil on vine crops, if the crop is on the label. It protects leaves best before the disease takes hold.
Bee caution: Don't spray open flowers. Spray in the late evening, when bees aren't flying.
Avoid broad insecticides; they kill mite predators and can start an outbreak.
Organic options
Hose leaf undersides hard, often.
Insecticidal soap or horticultural oil on leaf undersides, repeated as the label allows.
Release predatory mites once pest mites are present.
Conventional options
Same as organic. Broad insecticides often make mites worse.
Bee caution: Don't spray open flowers. Spray in the late evening, when bees aren't flying.
Read and follow the product label: it is the law. It sets the rate, the crops it is for, and the days between spraying and picking. Products registered vary by state; for organic growing, look for products allowed under the USDA National Organic Program (OMRI Listed). We name active ingredients, not brands or rates.
The link opens this growing guide, so anyone can read it and look up their own planting dates.
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Sow
Sprout
Vines
Flowers
Fruit sets
Harvest
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