By Kathleen Cue, Nebraska Extension Horticulture Educator
Viruses represent some of the toughest diseases to manage in cucumber, squash, pumpkin, and melon plants. Often the disease doesn’t kill but does reduce the size and number of leaves, which in turn decreases fruit production. Cucumber mosaic, cucumber green mottle mosaic, watermelon mosaic, zucchini yellow mosaic, and squash mosaic are some of the viruses that infect plants in the Cucurbit family. The viruses are spread from infected seeds, by aphid feeding, and by mechanical means, such as using a gardening tool on an infected plant and then using the same unclean tool on a healthy one.