Cucumber sticky leaves
There are 2 common causes, and they need completely different responses — so working out which one you have matters more than treating quickly.
None of them will normally kill the plant.
Check these two things first
- Push a finger into the soil, two knuckles deep. Wet soil plus a wilting plant means too much water, not too little — and it is the commonest reason a plant is dying. Dry soil plus crisp leaves means the opposite. The leaves look nearly identical either way, so the soil is what tells you.
- Turn a damaged leaf over. Half of all diagnoses live on the underside: fuzz means downy mildew, fine webbing means spider mites, clusters of insects mean aphids. Nothing on the top of a leaf is as informative.
Most garden problems are cosmetic and resolve without treatment. Reach for a spray last, not first.
The 2 causes, and how to tell them apart
1.Aphids
TreatablePest
Clusters of small soft-bodied insects, usually green but also black, grey, pink or white, packed along new shoots and the undersides of young leaves. Leaves curl and pucker, and everything below becomes sticky with honeydew.
How to know it is this one
Dense clusters on new shoots and flower buds rather than scattered individuals.
2.Whiteflies
TreatablePest
Tiny white moth-like insects, about a sixteenth of an inch, that rise in a cloud when the plant is disturbed and settle again immediately. Undersides of leaves carry scale-like immature stages and a scatter of white specks.
How to know it is this one
A cloud of tiny white insects that flies up when you shake the plant.
Still not sure?
The diagnostic key adds two more questions — which part is affected and where the trouble started — and those usually settle it.
Run the diagnostic key