Should you trim back aphid damaged leaves on cucumber?
Cucumber
North Port FL
I am trying my hand at a veggie garden. My cucumbers were going fierce, climbing, flowers, great foliage. Then an aphid attack. I am spraying with neem oil, and plan on making my own garlic/onion/hot pepper/oil& soap concoction, but what about the damaged leaves? They can't be doing any good for the plant? They are deformed, tons of holes, they just look awful.
Should I do a cutback, spray again with pest control and see how the plants do?
young cucumbers, they are much bigger now, with more damage, but you can see the tiny black bugs (??) and the holes. The plants are now more mature, and more holey.
If the plant was loosing more energy by keeping the leaves, it would kill the leaves. Cucumbers have only a few months to grow and reproduce, every leaf is an investment of energy and nutrients and is needed to achieve maximum yield. Furthermore sap flow is regulated by photosynthesizing tissue, by removing leaves you can mechanically slow the growth for days, which equates to yield loss. I would use this opportunity to learn how to kill aphids without loosing leaves. I would suggest not cutting off the leaves. almost 9 years ago.