Gellert Nursery, based in Auckland, New Zealand, last week made the very difficult decision to stop cucumber propagation due to an unknown disease affecting the young plants at their nursery. For the past few years, the company has struggled with an unidentified disease that randomly affects a small percentage of young cucumber plants at the early stage of their growth.
Steve Gellert owner and MD of the nursery has explained “We are making this public in the hope that someone around the world can offer a suggestion as to what the problem is. Over the time we have sent samples to a number of international laboratories who have been unable to identify the disease.”
“What we do know is the disease only affects cucumbers grown in rockwool and never in soil. We have also found that the more we do with hygiene the bigger the problem.”
Find more photos on grower2grower.co.nz.
“If anyone has seen this disease before and knows what it is we would be very grateful if you could make contact.” Please contact steveg@gellerts.co.nz.