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Mission Viejo, CA

Will that help fight back disease too? Great resource by the way… thanks for posting that. I’ll have reading material for a while.

8/11/2024 8:47:42 AM

Connecticut

Kevin M- This will indirectly help with disease pressure. What I mean by this is grass is a monocot plant category so it is a very different plant category than pumpkins so this rotation can help reduce pumpkin specific disease build-up.
Now, this does not directly impact certain soil born disease like a mustard cover crop or even planting hairy vetch (specific for fusarium suppression), so why did I select not to plant one one these?
If the growing area was a large size acre and greater, than these cover crops would be the way to go. Instead since the area is small I planted grass for a better ground cover that does not need further soil disturbance and is easy to maintain. For the disease suppression I plan on going with a peroxide product drench in the spring since the area is "small" as I think this provides better disease suppression but is more justifiable on a small scale.

Hope this helps.

8/12/2024 8:30:53 PM