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Jericho Vermont

This is my 3rd stem crack in 3 years and was wondering if anyone has had a solution to battle them?I have packed the area (about 2 inches so far on each side of the stem) with Captan paste. i have been marginally successful in years past with this, but was wondering if anyone had other suggestions for me. The pumpkin is still young 24 days and estimating at a little over 200 pounds. Thanks in advance. John

8/4/2006 9:07:11 PM

John,, when I had the problem last week a few very helpfull growers here all sent me email with advice. Most of which was to (carefully) use some straws "telescoped", dip into the Captan powder,, and blow in the hole from both the top and botom,,the powder absorbed the moisture and dryed it up. I put a fan on it to get the drying process going. I also lifted the tarp in the early morning for an hour (stem faces east) and let the sun help with the drying. I did blow a little more in the second day. Make sure there is NO stress on the stem.

A few commented that they had grown fruit to the end,,some over 1K with split stems!!!

So far so good here,,the fruit never missed a beat, actually it put on over 100lbs in the 3 days following the split.

8/4/2006 10:16:34 PM

Circleville

John, I use a 10 ml. plunger type syringe and do the same thing as above. If you know sombody that works in a hospital they can usually get you as many as you need.

8/5/2006 6:53:22 AM