This fall I grew 3 cucumber plants in root pouches; they were huge - looked like Jack & the Beanstalk plants. They had nice straight cucumbers, but then the bugs (catepillars) came and infested the cukes.
I know b/c I would pick the cuke and put in a bucket of water and see the caterpillar emerge).
BTW - In 2013 I had a horrible year with bugs (catepillars) in general; the cukes in the raised beds did worse. 2013 was the first year I grew cukes.
So I made a large PVC structure with tulle and started putting my pots/root pouches in there. It definitely stopped the moths' I put the yellow/blue sticky cards around and still managed to get some bugs - mostly gnats. The new cucumber plants thrive (produce) for awhile but then the leaves get the leafminer trails, get stiff, yellow, etc. I now have 2 plants without any flowers or new leaf growth but the stems don't seem dead at all - (juicy when pulling the bad leaves off). Are these plants done? I'm not sure if I should just yank them and if life expentancy is shortened b/c they were container grown - the younger plants are producing now.
Also, sometimes a plant would be producing and have lots of young cukes growing; then some of the cukes wither away (not due to bugs) am I not feeding them enough or is this normal?
Any advice would be appreciated. Thank you.
