Beginner Gardening: Cucumber plants NOT flowering....., 4 by Gitagal

Gitagal wrote:
cate---

The weather we have had in this area is despicable! Heat and drought--the spider mites just love this!

1--Here is a close-up of a Brugmansia leaf showing early Spider Mite damage.
The tiny, yellow speckles on top of the leaf. Try to recognize this and spray asap.
Turn the leaf over. If you see tiny, tiny black specs there--those are spider mites.
If you are not sure---take a sheet of white paper--put it under an affected leaf and tap it.
You may need a magnifying glass--BUT--if any of those little specks that you tapped off
start to move--you have Spider Mites.

2--Further along---the leaves will look more yellowish--with a dull, grayish appearance.
These are leaves on my Brugmansia--which, by now, is getting totally destroyed...
I spray with NEEM--but it just marches on. Maybe my NEEN is old....
3-- Here are some severely affected leaves on my big, old Burning Bush.
Just took these today. The leaves are now dropping off like flies--
The East exposure of this shrubs is still OK--but the West (towards my Patio) is shot!
The infestation is moving on to the rest of the shrub. Sprayed today again---may be a lost cause.
These shrubs will survive--but I hate the thought of them spreading the SM on to everything else.
4-- This is what i was faced with this morning......decided to disassemble all my plant shelving against the shrub--
clean up all the fallen off leaves---spray everything with 2 gallons of NEEM and then put everything back.
As you well know--it was in the high 90's today. Under my patio, though, it was a bit cooler so I plugged along...

I have NEVER, EVER seen this many Spider Mites on anything any other year!!!
Blame it on NO winter---ALL the bugs never died off--they all survived---All this heat--NO rain--etc....

I am NO expert on Cucumbers. Last year--i also lost all my plants. I think it was some kind of Bacterial Wilt.
So far--mine are doing OK! Better shut my mouth!!!!!
Good luck with your crop! Gita