This was the first year that I grew from seeds PARTHENOCARPIC cucumbers (=grow fruits without pollination).
Apart that the cucumbers were just delicious and so sweet ... even more than a watermelon ... I have noticed NO CUCUMBER BEETLES.
At the beginning I thought that maybe the record freeze we had in February for four days killed all of their eggs ... or that they didn't like the extreme heat of the summer ... but NO CUCUMBER BEETLES !
A friend told me that parthenocarpic varieties have bitter leaves and the cucumber beetles don't like them. Is it true?
Has anybody else experienced this?
By the way I am not complaining ...
No CUCUMBER BEETLES on PARTHENOCARPIC cucumbers
Last year I planted Diva, Diamant and Cool Breeze (all parthenocarpic) varieties. I had tons of cucumber beetles - on my zinnias, on my celosia, on my beans, everywhere BUT my cucumbers. They produced all the way nearly to frost. This year, I planted the Diva and Cool Breeze (I had seeds left over from last year, apparently this year they had crop failure and were replaced by Corentine, or something). The little buggers apparently caught on, because now I'm down to just one Diva vine.
The bitterness in cucumbers actually attracts beetles. Found this on a NDSU .pdf about Cucumber Wilt:
"Apparently cucurbitacin B and cucurbitacin C, which are attractive to the beetles, are the compounds which cause the bitterness factor in cucumbers."
So the Parthenocarpic varieties leaves are sweeter, right?
That's why I didn't have any cucumber beetles, right?
Not necessarily, drthor. I've grown parthenocarpic varieties for years and each one at some point is attacked by cuke beetles. I'm not convinced the leaves are any sweeter (or less) than the fruit itself but am convinced that cucurbitacin is what contributes to cuke bitterness. Regardless of the variety I still have more than my share of cuke beetles (dagnabbit!) :>)
What may help you with wilt and cuke beetles is to cover the plants with row cover, keeping the beetles at bay. Being parthenocarpic they won't need the bees to do any pollination for you.
Shoe
I am just curious why I didn't have any cucumber beetles ... huummm
Insects/bugs have cyclical years as do other entities in the plant kingdom. Who knows why you didn't have cuke beetles. Some years they are here in droves, others few and far between, some appear early in they year, some years they appear much later.
This year I planted Suyo Long, Little Leaf (parthenocarpic) and Lemon Cuke (a less bitter cuke w/less cucurbitacin A and D as mentioned above) and at some point they were all taken down. They all lasted about the same amount of time before succumbing. All plants were planted side by side on the same trellis. Weird, eh?
It sure made for a pretty trellis on the side of this carport though. I loved picking from it each day while they were in production!
Shoe
Shoe ~ it did make an attractive trellis. What did you provide for them to climb up on?
I just ran some baling string from post to post, zig-zagging here and there. Here is a pic from underneath the carport. It sure helped give me a sun-break as I tend to pot up plants there when it gets too hot in the greenhouse during the summer.
Shoe
Hmmm, well, maybe this close-up will let you see the strings a little better....
very clever and thank you for sharing
I will plant the same cukes next year and I hope I will be as lucky.
Love CORINTO and TASTY JADE (from http://www.johnnyseeds.com/default.aspx)
That Tasty Jade looks like a keeper, drthor. I might put that on my list as well.
Thanks for the heads up!
Shoe
I've found that the best way to control cucumber beetles is to control their larvae in late autumn by applying beneficial nematodes to each bed. There are three types of nematodes and they control a host of soil borne pests, including cutworms, grubs, pill bugs, cucumber beetles and many others biologically..