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The bottom of New Jersey

I have what seems to be an unusual and incredibly frustrating situation that has now occurred to 2 pumpkins in the last 7-10 days. They both have done the exact same thing - around day 40-42, each pumpkin exhibited some small surface cracks that oozed some sap (some of it clear, some brownish colored). No big deal, I thought. But then a day or two later some blueish-grey spots appeared and at that point both of these pumpkins slammed on the breaks and stopped growing. The latest one was nearing 900 lbs. and was doing 30+ per day for 3 weeks straight. The plant is healthy, vines are healthy, there is nothing else visibly wrong. It is on an 1142 Vankooten and was showing tremendous potential. The only thing I can think of is something is wrong in the soil or water (I have needed to water a lot this year and I use well water). I just sent a soil sample in for testing 5 days ago so I am still awaiting those results - in the meantime, has anyone else ever experienced anything like this before? Any experienced growers have a clue what might cause this, and is there any hope for Big Bertha?

Here's a pic of the dripping cracks as well as the spots:
http://www.bigpumpkins.com/Diary/DiaryViewOne.asp?eid=142221

8/14/2010 9:12:06 AM

Eastern Pennsylvania

Alex I hope you are kidding. but i know you arent and unfortunately i have no good advice :( what the hell?

8/14/2010 3:42:56 PM

The bottom of New Jersey

I wish I was kidding too Jim. I am going to put a bunch of new pictures up in my diary right now. There are more sunken spots than there was a day ago.

8/15/2010 8:26:01 AM

Decatur, IL

I have battled Fusarium for many years and my fruit show the same type of symptoms. I usually have vines and leaf stems that show signs of rot, though. It definitely sounds like some type of fungal root disease. Once it's in your soil, I'm afraid there's not much you can do unless you want to spend a fortune on fungicide drenches and not buy shoes for your kids or pay for their college education. Hope you find out it's nothing that serious.

8/15/2010 12:42:35 PM

The bottom of New Jersey

Thanks for the reply CM. I'm not sure that Fusarium is my problem but I can't say no to anything at this point either. We don't have any kids so I don't have to worry about paying for any college educations, and I will personally go without shoes if I have to, lol!

8/15/2010 1:45:38 PM

Lloydminster/AB

I was continuous cropping one of my patches and by the end of the season my leaves looked like yours. Last year it got so bad that every older leaf was dead by the end. I suspected potassium deficiency but I had been adding a balanced fert and my soil tests said I should have been ok so I was confused. My pumpkin stopped in it's tracks. This year I grew corn in that patch. No surprise it to showed the easily seen symptoms of K deficiency though only moderate. I think that when you start growing fruit at 30 pounds per day K demands are immense and a shortage might cause fruit to stop growing like mine did. I'm in the same boat as you so I hope you figure it out. Good luck!

8/15/2010 7:51:03 PM

The bottom of New Jersey

Thanks for that info Don, that's along the lines of what I am thinking is going on here. I too have been feeding my plant weekly but not enough maybe? And I haven't been foliar feeding so perhaps the dry soil conditions this year have made the nutrients less available.

8/15/2010 10:26:51 PM

Rhode Island

sounds like something is going on inside the pumpkin. they dont just stop growing unless something is very wrong.
id get it to a weighoff soon if possible

8/16/2010 9:15:34 AM

Lloydminster/AB

I would bet that dry conditions would make it worse.
Twice I have had fruit just stop at a young age(65 days) in that patch and they were solid fruit and made it to the weigh off. I have also had to shovel out mush shortly after stoppage of growth of some other fruit. It is good advice to get it weighed as soon as possible and much easier to remove if the worst has happened and the bottom has split. Crap happens when you start growing big!

8/16/2010 10:57:58 PM

The bottom of New Jersey

Yeah, I know! Thanks guys, I do think I will be getting it weighed very soon. It still looks and sounds very solid though. One thing is for sure, I am not going to miss out on this learning opportunity. I will kick myself repeatedly if I let this happen again, lol!

8/17/2010 8:53:54 AM