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Ellwood City, PA, USA

After reviewing last years demise of my plant and this years, I have notice a pattern and believe my issue is fusarium.

Last year I had a bad infestation of cuke beetles and squash bugs, so I attributed my vine problems and aborts to disease from the insects.

This year, I have very few cuke beetles or squash bugs. I have done a far better job controlling them; so bugs does not appear to be the contributing factor.

This year and last year, I would get pumpkins of varying sizes, but they all stopped growing and then aborted.

I noticed the same behavior both years though. Both years, the first secondary on the same side of my patch yellowed. I removed the secondary both years. Last year the whole plant ended up looking like that secondary and I pulled the whole thing. This year, when I saw it, I cut that secondary immediately, instead of waiting as long as I did last year.

Now, I have yellow leaves with dark green veins, at the last 2 feet or so of many of the secondaries and the main.

Now that I have seen the yellowing with the green veins, I remembered that is what I ended up seeing near the end of vines life last year.

So.... Both years I had yellowing in a secondary in the exact same location in my patch. This preceded setting any fruit. Both years all pumpkins aborted. Both years the leaves at the ends of my vines started yellowing with the dark green veins.

Tissue sample is order; although I am pretty certain this is my issue.

7/21/2012 11:19:55 AM

Ellwood City, PA, USA

Sorry for the lengthy setup in my original post. I just wanted to be thorough.

I have been doing a lot of reading on Fusarium. There doesn't appear to be any good news.

I was wondering about RootShield. It says it will attack the fusarium fungus in the soil and destroy it. Will it do that if there is no root source left for it to attach to? I plan on pulling the vines and would like to start any treatments now and again in the Spring.

Any good ideas out there?

7/21/2012 11:22:26 AM

Ellwood City, PA, USA

I don't have any pics posted of the affected vines.

I found the following on Ron Rahes Diary, which looks exactly like the ends of my vines:

http://www.bigpumpkins.com/Diary/DiaryViewOne.asp?eid=141542

7/21/2012 11:25:24 AM

Ellwood City, PA, USA

I just realized another thing, after reading about the affects of fusarium on cereals (wheat, etc...). In the same spot in my patch where my vines appear to first get infected, the winter rye does not grow very well. It is yellow in color and very small.

7/21/2012 11:30:21 AM

Pa

its probably best to give that patch a few years off if possible. if not then improve the drainage, too much moisture can lead to disease. fungicides can help but they are expensive, the ones for fusarium would be medallion and clearys. rootshield is more a preventative than a cure. put it in the seed starting media from the beginning, at transplant and again at each tap root as you bury. beneficials such as actinovate, cease and companion help as well. the best approach is a combo of all 3, fungicides, beneficials (bacilis subtillis) and rootshield. I"m not far from you (butler)

7/21/2012 1:57:50 PM

Ellwood City, PA, USA

Thanks for the advice, Titanic. How is your patch doing? Just wondering how others in the area doing.

7/22/2012 7:07:02 AM

Rhode Island

its still early enough to get that area cleared,tilled and put down a cover crop of mustard seed.the mustard this time of year will grow to flower in about 5-6 weeks ,then you can cut andtill under and plant a cover crop of winter rye.
mustardis anatural fumeagent (i know my spelling sucks) and could go a long way to helping that area.
we use it in any area we are resting.be sure to cut and till under though before those flowers go to seed.
i would do this for a couple years-rotate mustard ,then rye.even put down a second mustard in mid summer.

7/22/2012 9:34:13 AM

Cincinnati,OH

I'm using Companion this year, so far so good.
I moved to a new patch last year,but with it being the wettest year on record here I didnt do to well to say the least.

7/22/2012 10:19:07 AM

Ellwood City, PA, USA

Thanks for the advice guys. I was going to start prepping for cover crops in the next couple of days.

We only have room for 1 pumpkin at our house. There's not a lot of room. I am always in the one and done scenario.

Letting this patch sit for a couple of years means not growing pumpkins for a couple of years. That is just as bad as having plants die every year.

Again, thanks for advice.

I look forward to seeing how the season ends for the other growers out there. I hope to see a lot of big and orange pumpkins out there.

Good luck everyone!

7/22/2012 1:35:23 PM