The leaves on my cuke plant have become fragile. They have white spots on them, and have some holes like they are being eaten by bugs. This is what the leaves looked like when the plant was very young. It struggled for awhile, but then it turned around, and it was very healthy. Now the leaves are suffering again. The fruit, however, is great. It's producing lots of cukes, and they are delicious. Does anyone know how I should treat the leaves? I have sprayed aspirin water on them twice in the last two weeks.

..."Wet foliage at night increases susceptibility to fungal diseases."....
..............
When there is a tropical_storm/hurricane
in Baja_California/Central_America,
the humidity is high but not like the east_coast
or midwest.
..........
temperatures here in socal;
72 in Santa Monica,
80 in LA,
90 in Pomona,
110 in Palm Springs.
Funny earthquake weather ?
..........
Take your pick ?
.........
I expect my cucumbers in 3 weeks. I hope ?
I expect my zuchinnis in a month ?
etc.........
...........
No fungal diseases as yet for me.
........
Good Luck,
bill in socal

You know, the cuke plant I got as a start from the nursery is doing that to me too. I got 2 cucs off the plant before it hit the skids. On the otherhand, my plants I started from seed took much longer to establish, but are now our main source of production and beauty. I think the heat has something to do with it and surely the fabulous entourage of overwhelming pests we have in So Cal (I've gardened in Oregon a lot - NOOOOO comparison - pest down here are absolutely overwhelming). Good thing about this, though, gardening in So Cal makes us smarter and every harvested cucumber is even more precious than all our cool weather friend gardeners' who have less pest battling to do!

Try to get a book with pictures of diseased leaves to figure out what is wrong. "The Organic Gardeners Handbook of Natural Insect and Disease Control" by Ellis and Bradley (a Rodale book) has pictures. You can often find used books on the internet. The Gardens Alive catalog also has a section with helpful pictures.

Leaves with pale green patches which wilt and blacken may be afflicted with squash bugs. Leaves with powdery white spots may have powdery mildew (some varieties are resistant to this) which is treated with a copper spray or baking soda and water mixture (1 tbsp/gallon of water + a little oil).