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Las Vegas Nv.

Big hello from las vegas. we have been having insane weather out here and i lost my main vine but a secondary has taken over and become a nice vine ...the problem i am having is. female's are comming in I have fertalized them by hand (no bee's around here) the fruit will start to grow then turn yellow wrinkle up and die off I have some leaves that are yellow ..I was thinking maybe not enough water I water them everynight for about 5-10 minutes I have increased the water to about 20 minutes twice a day and i have one fruit wich is green now but I would like to have something by the end of october. not enough water? to much? I am lost this time last year I had over 10 nice size fruits but i AM IN A NEW HOUSE NOW SO WHO KNOWS. any help would be great.

9/1/2003 11:12:39 PM

porterville, calif.

Hi I water in the morning for about 45 min. Then again in the afternoon for 1 hour. I run a mister from about 11 am to 5 PM. Last year i watered at nite. I haven,t done that at all this year and things are going better. Do you shade the fruit? It gets almost as hot here as it does there. I think you need to water a little more during the day and not at all at nite. Then shade the fruit as soon as they set. What i have done here this year has realy helped me alot. Email if you have any more questions...Greg

9/2/2003 12:17:36 AM

Las Vegas Nv.

I am going to give that a shot the fruit looks good this morning I will try watering during the day I only worry about burning the plant because of the 100 plus weather we are having right now

9/2/2003 3:05:04 PM

Montoursville, PA

Can you deliver the water via drip hose? Could you run water in a depression ditch to keep it off the leaves?
An overhead sprinkler will reduce the heat on the leaves by evaporation some twenty or more degrees. Up to 50% of what you deliver overhead can be evaporation. An inch of water deliverd overhead might really be twelve to fourteen hundred gallons of water. Are you using a light mulch to reduce surface evaporation?

Do a little math on your own. Take your hose and fill a five gallon bucket through a hand held spray devise. Use the sprinkler head for a more accurate test. The bucket will fill in a given amount of time. Play with the pencil to see how long you would do overhead watering to deliver an honest inch to the roots. Think you might be surprised at what you discover.

Most feel you need at least an inch of water on the patch a week.

9/2/2003 3:21:59 PM

porterville, calif.

I was worried about leaf burn last year from overhead watering. I have no problem of leaf burn this year at all. I have been using overhead watering all of the time. I have been hand feeding the plants in the evening just before dark. Oh 1 thought maybe you are using to much nitrogen. You will get all leaf and flower growth and no fruit. Don,t feed at all until your fruit is the size of a basketball..Greg

9/2/2003 5:14:47 PM

Las Vegas Nv.

cool thank you for your help I am not feeding yet and have no special soil to speak of. right now I only have one fruit it looks a bit yellow but is about the size of coke can hopefully some more females will come in soon. my smaller patch at my other property is doing great but also has no fruit dont know if I am going to get any going in time this year :( but thanks again for the help

9/2/2003 10:49:24 PM