Horticulture: MOSAIC

So, I found out what was plaguing my cucumber buddies in the garden, and I could not be sadder. I had brought up an issue with some white patches on the leaves last week, but no-one quite listened to me when I showed them said splotches (so I felt).

Today, I spoke to Sid about this, who actually listens.

Hey. There's these white patches; leaves are dying more and more with this pattern, and fertilizer is not the solution; this cucumber has not grown in size since I saw it two weeks ago; what is this white, sticky-dusty stuff on Ouest's root stalk?

We took a sample leaf mottled with green, yellow, white and brown, observed the smut-like quality of the sticky stuff (which rubbed off), making notes that many of the cucumbers in our garden have this issue. The cucumber that had not grown had actually rotted, I was told -- it still looked greenish to me, but a little off-color. Two other baby cucumbers were affected nearby. I was instructed to remove the failed cucumbers while we looked up what was going on.

This afternoon, I get called over to the Teacher Assistant desk.

Hey, (Jayel).
"I didn't break it; you can't prove it."
No, but you're going to have to break stuff tomorrow.

Sid shows me their big book of plant diseases, turned to a page on Mosaic.
It cannot be cured, according to the book.
Plants must be removed, as well as nearby plants in the same family.

This... is going to strip my garden bed just about bare if we go through with this.
It's gonna take out Ouest, Nord, Eastie and its twin, Gapeast, as well as hardy little One Leaf, who was finally fruiting.

This would leave me with...

• Mint.
• One Glass Gem Corn plant.
• Pak Choi.

Apparently, groundcherries are an infection vector for mosaic. In the week before it showed up on my plants, several people around me started transplanting or otherwise moving around groundcherry plants, including my neighbor who has a giant one on his plot. The insects visit the flowers, and that likely is how it spread so virulently that many of us have mosaic.

Guess I'll have to start the garden destruct sequence tomorrow.
Pity, because there were cucumbers that just needed a few more days. :(