Re: Cucumber pest?

Billy wrote:
In article <g5c0im$cmc$1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
Steve <tlswilso@xxxxxxx> wrote:

I've noticed in past years that when my cucumber vines get about 3 feet long, SOMETHING happens to the growing tip. It gets kind of brown up one side of the stem. The tip curls over and then dies.
Eventually the tip-less vine makes one or more side branch and the vine grows on but sometimes the new tips die off too.
Today I noticed the first tips starting to be affected for this year. So what does that? I've never seen any visible pest. I haven't used a magnifying glass or anything.

Steve in the Adirondacks

Might look at

http://extension.usu.edu/files/publications/fact***/HG_2004-07.pdf

http://gardening.about.com/od/problemspests/qt/Cucumber_Wilt.htm
or
http://www.essentialgardenguide.com/garden-vegetables-problems/9/Cucumber
/

Well, this isn't going to be as easy as I hoped.
The web sites you gave have a lot of information, especially that 3rd one. NOTHING there even comes close to describing the problem I see on my cucumbers. The only possibilities, as far as I can tell, are mites and thrips. Even those pests aren't described as affecting the growing tips. I have noticed that the biggest leaf (half inch wide at most) at the affected tip looks dried up as if mites had sucked the sap out of it. Again, I think my next move should be a close inspection with a magnifying glass. I didn't think to do that today.

Steve
.