Cucumbers are the most common and popular vegetables at any time of the year. Containing a lot of useful substances (vitamins B and C, potassium, phosphorus, calcium, iodine, iron), they are tasty both in fresh and canned form. A striking advantage of such a useful vegetable is its low calorie content: 130 kcal per 1 kilogram! For people suffering from excess weight, cucumber is the most recommended product, which you can consume in unlimited quantities.
Cucumber Disease: Anthracnose
Growing a high-quality crop of cucumbers is no easy task! In addition to providing the vegetable with optimal care, it is necessary to prevent the occurrence of diseases that can destroy the expected crop in an instant. Their appearance often occurs for 2 reasons: it is watering with cold water and cardinal differences in day and night temperatures.
Anthracnose of cucumbers is one of the most dangerous diseases of such a garden crop, which has received total distribution in many countries. Representing a fungal disease, copperfish (another name for anthracnose) affects the plant completely. On the stems it appears brown spots, which, "eating" the living tissue of vegetable culture, simply lead to its breaking. Leaves are affected by spots of yellowish color, which rapidly increase in size; as a result, the fabric dries and falls out, forming slit-like openings on the leaves. The next object anthracnose of cucumbers directly selects the fruits; on them, the disease manifests itself in small, fast-growing pink colored pads that rapidly merge into one whole, continuous ulcer. The mycelium of the fungi penetrates deep into the greenhouse rather deep: by 3-5 mm. Cucumbers lose their presentation and become unusable.
Preventive measures
The field of activity of anthracnose is not limited to cucumbers only, garden crops such as melons, pumpkins, watermelons fall under its influence.
Anthracnose (or copper pickle of cucumbers) is able to cut the crop by half, while destroying almost all plants; the infection can persist in the soil on plant debris and infected seeds. Therefore, to prevent anthracnose, a number of rules should be observed:
- promptly remove and dispose of vegetation residues from the site after harvesting;
- observe crop rotation, that is, plant cucumbers at the previous planting site no earlier than 3 years later;
- to collect seeds exclusively from healthy plants;
- choose a variety of cucumbers that are resistant to disease;
- dress with seeds before sowing;
- disinfect soil, greenhouse constructions and work tools;
- Improve the soil by applying organic fertilizers and biological products.
Optimal conditions for the spread of anthracnose
Anthracnose of cucumbers - a disease that acquires its greatest activity with high humidity; dew and rain, as well as plus temperature from 4 to 30 degrees, are the most comfortable conditions for its distribution. The incubation period lasts from 4 to 7 days. At a temperature of + 20-25 degrees, the ripening period of the mushroom is reduced and is three days. At a humidity of less than 60%, anthracnose of cucumbers does not appear. In addition to reproduction by conidia during sprinkling, with condensation and irrigation water, the fungus is transmitted through the contact of healthy plants with patients, through through ventilation, it is carried on work clothes, aphids and spider mites.
The mushroom hibernates not only on the plants remaining after harvesting, but also on the film and glass of the greenhouses, as well as their designs. Harvested seeds can be carriers of such a dangerous infection for the plant.
Anthracnose control
In addition to the above preventive measures aimed at preventing the disease of cucumbers, anthracnose, the treatment of which is required to be carried out with a competent approach, can be overcome with the help of chemicals. Seeds before sowing are recommended to be treated with TMTD fungicide per 1 kg - 4 grams of the drug. This operation can be performed 2-3 weeks before sowing. The action of the treating agent extends throughout the growing season and consists in slowing down and stopping the process of cell division and nuclei of pathogenic fungi located in the plant and soil. Before sowing, seeds are also recommended to be soaked in a solution of the “Immunocytophyte” biostimulator. Its action has a preventive meaning, forms a high resistance to various diseases in plants (including fungal diseases), stimulates the active growth of the culture and the passage of various biological processes in it.
If symptoms of the disease are detected, the crops must be sprayed with a 1% suspension of colloidal sulfur and treated with a 0.5-1% Bordeaux mixture, copper oxychloride or “Polyram”; such a measure will simultaneously become a prevention against the appearance of powdery mildew. It is recommended to apply a 0.5% solution of copper sulfate to the affected areas, after which it should be powdered with crushed coal, honey or lime. Of modern means, it is recommended to use the drug “Tsineb” at the rate of 20-30 grams per 10 liters of water or “Tsiram” - for the same amount of water 30-40 grams.
Basal watering as a measure of coping with coppers
With the root form of anthracnose, a high effect is given by pouring a 1% solution of Bordeaux liquid or a 0.5% Abiga-Peak solution under the root of each plant. First, you need to moisten the soil with plenty of water, then pour a solution of the drug under each bush so that its main part falls under the root, the rest on the stem (at the rate of 0.5-1 liter per unit of garden culture). Such treatment, if necessary, can be repeated 2-3 times a week. Be sure to protect the leaves from getting the solution.
No to anthrancosis!
Anthracnose of cucumbers, the treatment of which consists not only in chemical treatment, but also in the application of preventive preventive measures, will be successfully defeated during the above measures in the complex.