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Entry Date
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Nick Name
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Location
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Friday, June 28, 2024
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Garwolf
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Kutztown, PA
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Entry 9 of 18 |
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This is the first year of four I have not applied Roundup to kill weed at the beginning of season. I've done this about a week before taking the cloches off the plants. In correlation, for the last four years I've seen at least some curly of leaves and odd looking deformations that looked somewhat like a mosaic virus. Some plants worse than others, but all had at least a couple of secondaries that exhibited this. Last year it was wide spread showing up on all new growth. It was so bad that I pulled all four of my plants in early July and attributed the problem to mosaic. I even did an assay for cucumber virus which seemed most likely since I always have my share of cucumber beetles. While I suspect overuse of Roundup was the real problem, I decided to change up several things including not using It at all. Here's what I did differently this season. I applied amendments, including Imidacloprid granular on May 1st instead of April 1st. I put my plants in the ground 3 weeks later than normal and used no heating cables. I planted a mustard cover crop August 1st last year, cut it and tilled it in on November 25th. I'm using a bury mix that includes last years Rootshield, Azos, Mycos, granular humic, and a small amount of 10-10-10 or 12-12-12 at each leaf node. So that's it. Roundup seems the most likely culprit to me, but I can't say for sure. I should point out that cucumber beetles have been scarce so far this year.
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