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Western PA

My big one has stopped growing since the splits occured on the first of Aug. I put silicon patches over them to hopefully get it weighed as dmg. The last several days I am noticing soft, seeping areas between the pumpkin and the stump at the secondary to main junctions. It started at the fruit and now is working back to the fruit.

It seems like the pumpkin quit excepting liqued but the vines don't have anywhere to put it and the junctions are blowing up and spewing juice and sap all over.(just my opinion)

I saw in Shazzy's diary that he had similar issues but his fruit is still growing and he had a ton of rain. It has been dry for me and the areas on mine are covered by a tarp, so they are always dry.
I have been trying to scrape out the soft stuff and keep applying captan. I think I will put a fan on them today to see if I can get them dry.

Has this happened to anyone before when your fruit stopped growing ?

8/9/2010 12:53:44 PM

Western PA

Typo in first paragraph... The rotting areas started at the closest secondary near the pumpkin and the next two junctions are getting some. It is heading toward the stump.

I found a soft area about 1 foot out past the stump, so I drilled a hole in the top and bottom of the vine. The bottom seemed solid but the top was soft. not to much of anything came out. I decided not to water this plant tonight since the vines seem to be full of water.I am not sure what is going on with this plant.It all started after my pumpkin split.

8/9/2010 8:28:56 PM

Lexington, Ky

I have experienced the same several times. Even though the symptoms start at the pumpkin and go backward (then laterally), I'm convinced that the problem actually starts in the stump and/or vine behind the pumpkin. I have never been able to save one when this occurs.

8/10/2010 9:27:45 AM

Honesdale, Pennsylvania

That happened to the Dyberry Patch guy with his huge one growing on the 1725. He scraped and applied Captan but it kept spreading. As a last ditch effore he removed the entire stump and all of the secondaries up to the pumpkin leaving all of the healthy secondaries behind the fruit to see if it can coast home. Its a monster and he is hoping to keep it alive. We are not sure if the experiment will work but its worth a try. There are photos of it in my diary.

8/10/2010 4:44:04 PM

Joliet, IL

lee, i have one that is healed, one with very minor weeping, and one with continual weeping getting slower. it is not sap like on a pumpkin cantalpoing, but more of a green snotty fluid. i saw your pictures and my snot is a little different looking than your snot. that whiter more jelly snot in your pic looks like an infection with discharge from some sort of from a bacteria. my jelly looks like sometimes a stem split on woodier old stems will fissure and a slow release of sap grows slowly over the day. i continue to wipe it off, clean with 10 percent bleach and paper towels rubbing firm in the area to dispel any sap at skin surface. the vines under the sap are still firm and rot free at this point. the vines at the junctions look like huge knuckles growing woodier and larger over time. after 7 inches of rain in 2 days, i believe mine had so much fluid in the plant that any area that grew and expanded quickly and fissured squeezed out some juices. i am fanning and cleaning and have layered the captan powder on thick to help soak it up and choke it off. if you push on a vine or stem and it is soft and juices pop like a zit, its infection. at that point if caught early i clean the area with a knife dwon to firm fresh green tissue, 10 percent bleach, a fan captan and repeat until tried to heal. if it is a localized rot spore that attached on open fissure, it can be healed. if it is a disease and the symptoms are snotting out discharge from the inside out, odds are rotting the tissue, i would do like you are doing and take a proactive approach. i never had a rotten vine or diseased plant take down a pumpkin. it stopped it growing, but didn't take it down. if it is gummy stem blight, it may enter the pumpkin and affect the fruit. maybe a tissue test for disease will help figgure out what is up.

8/11/2010 7:01:56 PM

Western PA

Shazzy, your explanation was a big help. Unfortunately my vines are full of nasty water.If I squeeze a water logged vive it will shoot juice all over the place. I have even got hit in the face with that nasty juice. As you explained it must be an infection of some sort.

I decided to cut the main taday because the vine was water logged and totally rotten only about 10 inches from the pumpkin stem. I don't want to take a chance on loosing the fruit, even though it will most likely be dmg.
By the way you explained it, you must have been down this road before with infection.
You nailed it, it seems to be rotting from the inside out.

Is this something that could spread to my other plants ?

Do tissue tests cost $$$ to have done ? Who even does tissue tests near me ?

Thanks a lot for the help.

8/11/2010 8:16:44 PM

Western PA

One thing that I have been doing lately that is probably a no no, is I have been pruning a lot of interior 3rd stage growth and not putting captan on it, because it too far to reach. I am cutting the vines with a knife on a 6 foot pc of conduit to get way in there with out stepping on my root system. I fear doing more dammage by trying to get in there to apply it. This is the one plant out of my 4 that is growing 3rd stage growth like mad , so I am constantly cutting leaves or vines. That should be comming to an end real soon LOL !

8/11/2010 8:28:27 PM

Eastern Pennsylvania

boy Shazzy this post turned gross lol. I'll go in record in saying I have never applied any form of fungicide to the vines or other areas that I trim off. I've never had any instances of foaming stumps, rotting vines, snotty buildup, plant zits, bloody dingleberries, etc. lol.

I did have a soft stem spot which I scraped out, applied a bleach/water mixture with a toothbrush, and then 70% alcohol to it. I put a fan on it and it is all better. Luckly I got Missy's toothbrush back into the holder on the sink before she noticed it was gone.

8/12/2010 1:30:23 PM

Western PA

Does anyone know how these infections get started ?

Orangeneck, that makes me feel a little better that you don't apply any fungicide at all. I try to apply it as basically a precationary measure. I put captan in a bottle like you may get mustard or ketchup in, like at a diner.The bottle has that small tip on it and I just put a puff or two on most wounds.

8/12/2010 3:28:36 PM