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Vancouver Washington

I have a plant that has a small area on the stump that is covered with a white foam. when i wiped it off... a small little stream of water erupted,,, then slowed to drips.

It has been doing this for a week now. I am worried that it may be fusarium. The stump is still very solid and so are my vines. My fruit on that plant has a stem split. It is developing a brownish dark edge around the captan where it is drying... Does that brown sticky substance mean fusarium? If it is... will it kill the fruit?

Strange things are happening on this plant.. the male flowers are also full of white material. It is as if they are trying to grow into pumpkins... after they bloom.. They start to swell and grow into masses...any ideas?

9/10/2006 3:07:00 AM

Ctpumpkin@optonline.net

It would be good to have a pathological test done on the infected tissue so that you are sure what disease you're dealing with. This will permit the correct control strategy later.

Fusarium (if present) can cause mottling of the fruit's skin if it infected the fruit. But it has manifested itself in the crown ("stumps" are already dead) where Fusarium destroys the vascular tissues & thus prevents fluid transfer. Many pumpkins keep right on growing after losing their crown. It all depends on the condition of the secondary (adventitious) root system. If their has been a lot of secondary rooting & they are free of disease, then the pumpkin could still make respectable weight gains.

Wiping the infected are should entail extreme measures of sanitation. Straight rubbing alcohol or a 10% bleach solution should be handy to clean tools, the infected area & your hands so as to prevent spreading the disease. When the season ends, removes as much of the diseased plant parts as possible or (better) burn the plant right in the patch to prevent the inevitable transfer of infected debris. Little bits & pieces always fall off during patch cleanup.

9/10/2006 8:49:08 AM

Long Island,New York

Also...when it goes to the dump modern sanitation operations grind it up and sell it as compost potentially infecting all the pkn patches that buy the compost.....

9/10/2006 11:18:44 AM

Ohio

G, I think that happend to me,lol.

I have it on my 1068 Wallace plant Newway, July 31st I removed the entire main vine before the plant.Mine leaked like yours did when I first cut a leaF off at the stump it leaked water out like a faucet and wouldnt stop untill about 24 hrs later and never thought anything about it cause the plant looked healthy. A week later I got ahold of Tremor and told him about my leaves started to wilt during the day and in the evening the leaves would be normal again. Tremor told me what to check for and I noticed the orangish circle on the inside of a secondary I cut off and then felt the vine right up from the stump, it was soft. After looking at this problem deeper the entire insides of my main vine and stump was orangish brown. I removed all the infected parts before the pumpkin, the pumpkin was opprox 100 to 150lbs. Tremor then told me to drenched it with Clearys along with all my other plants. The parts that wasnt infected this helped, I dont have any signs of this and My pumpkin is now over 500lbs growing on vines that are past the pumpkin only.

This is a nasty desease thats getting worse for alot of growers,I hope they find something for it.

Brooks

9/14/2006 5:14:33 AM