Whenever the damage is predominately on the leaf margins it points to a nutritional issue rather than disease. You might have a few simultaneous problems going in but I would expect that the plants will grow out of the problem with proper care. Not sure why you suspect a virus but it isn't apparent. Keep fungal diseases under control and you should be ok.

This kind of relieves me to be honest. The soil had 1-2" of compost tilled in in the spring and has had a pine needle mulch ever since. What do you think could be wrong nutritionally? Should I begin to fertilize, or is it something the plant needs to work out itself?

Thanks for the quick answer.

Jacob

The yellow leaf margins is often a sign of potassium deficiency although it can also reflect other nutrient issues as well. So it wouldn't hurt to feed them - depending on how you plan to do it - since they have had no nutrient source amendments to date.

Compost is a soil amendment, not a fertilizer. So unless you have a very healthy working soil food web compost isn't going to supply much in the way of nutrients.

The yellowish spots on some of the leaves could be early mildew symptoms so fungicide of your choice may be advisable.

Dave

Alright I'll do so. I actually have to spray my tomatoes with serenade and baking soda mixture on Monday once all this rain is past, so I'll hit the cucumbers with that as well. So far it has worked great for the leaf spot on the tomatoes. It's keeping new growth from developing it too bad and my fruit won't rot anymore (usually) from the leaf spot.my grandma tells me that a tablespoon of baking soda per gallon of water kills off any blight or leaf spot for her as well, better than anything she's tried. I'm going to add that into the serenade mixture.

While we're on topic with the compost, @digdirt2, my corn seems to be tasseling really well at this point, and is a beautiful dark shade of green. I did find out that my compost had added fertilizers, as you had discussed in my previous thread about the corn.

Certainly don't want to argue with your grandmother but sodium bicarbonate could burn leaves as well and cucumbers are very sensitive to salt. There are potassium bicarbonate products on the market that are less harsh. But if Downey Mildew is starting as Dave mentioned (it is as far north as MD already) then you may be out of luck with any organic product). Downey Mildew is as aggressive as Late Blight so you will know in 2 weeks if you have it.

I did a test on the baking soda and the leaves seem alright as of yet. I might do more tests before a full spray just to make sure.

Yeah, I am wondering if it's mildew after what you've said, because in the couple of days since I took that picture the "mystery" fungus has grown considerably. I don't believe nutrient deficiency (though I don't doubt they are deficient) would grow as quickly as this is...

With how frustrating these diseases and pests have been as of late (like a SKUNK of all critters eating my tomatoes!!), I'm still finding myself more and more excited for next year to correct mistakes...

Thanks for the great advice, as always!

Jacob

Oh it's definitely been wet here. We've had heavy rains every night since Thursday!! Last night we got at least a couple inches. The darn wind from it wrecked my field corn crop- was coming from multiple directions and gusting at probably around 60 mph. It threw the table up off our porch 4 feet over and sideways and broke the umbrella on top of it too!

I'll keep that in mind and thin if needed. Thank you. I need to spray but this rain just keeps coming. I'm afraid it'd wash it right off. We're supposed to be rained out throughout Wednesday and then all weekend again. I may just have to suck it up and spray before the rain hits...

I feel your pain, jacoblockcuff. My cucumbers were looking good until 2-3 weeks ago and they started getting yellow spots on them. you might want to check this link out, it is to The Cucurbit Downy Mildew Forecasting Home Page: http://cdm.ipmpipe.org/ . Looking at the map you can see how DM is reaching from Brownsville, TX up to Detroit, MI and eastward...Arkansas is easily within the perimeter of the epidemic. This is a first year garden. I'm already looking for better disease resistant plants, though these Ashley cucumbers were supposed to have some resistance to them. With all the wet, humid, overcast weather that we've had here in south Alabama this year it's understandable how the disease is coming on strong. :(

Here's a couple of shots of my cucumbers from the other day:

Dirt_tracker, that's exactly what my cucumbers look like at the moment, except maybe a slight bit worse. We've never had trouble with this fungus until this year...

Cucurbits are mostly all susceptible to it, from what I can tell. It seems, from what I've read, that it is a gradual progression each year a littler further northward and a little further westward. The unusually wet/moist conditions that we've had this year made the perfect environment for it to grow and spread. I can definitely see it over all of my cucumber plants...I have them started up a net trellis but I can see a "yellow" tint to the entire stand...even the leaves that don't "look" speckled.<sigh> Ah well, I'm hoping for a better year next year!!!!

Same here. That's what's exciting with gardening I've found. It always leaves you excited to correct mistakes the next year. If you're stubborn, it seems to keep you going...