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Danville, CA (petman2@yahoo.com)

So I have read here before that mosaic cannot be transferred in the seeds. This UC Davis memo indicates otherwise for Squash Mosaic. Should we be concerned? This also indicates that the hosts are very limited so maybe it is a small threat?

http://vric.ucdavis.edu/veginfo/topics/disease/cucurbitvirus.pdf

10/23/2006 9:10:00 PM

Ctpumpkin@optonline.net

Eric,

That's been around a while now. Most growers soak seeds in Peroxide (or SHOULD) which is a good sanitation practice.

I've never seen or experienced Squash Mosaic but if a grower did see it, probably the best thing to do is destroy the crop debris (including fruit & seeds) by burning.

Comovirus seems to be isolated to small geographic regions of south America.

See

http://image.fs.uidaho.edu/vide/descr753.htm

10/23/2006 10:56:46 PM

Danville, CA (petman2@yahoo.com)

That's great news. I wasn't really worried but was more confused. I read a ton of stuff and try to remember but sometimes one thing contradicts another and .....

Does the soaking occur before drying or before germinating or both? Thanks Steve.

10/25/2006 12:28:29 AM

Ctpumpkin@optonline.net

Personally I use a 5% bleach solution to clean seeds that were just gutted.
Soak seeds for a few hours in a 50/50 Peroxide/water solution at germination.

It isn't clear whether either practice controls a seed vectored disease. If there was a disease inside the embryo then a sanitary measure on the seed coat might not stop it.

I'd like to know more about seed vectored disease transference.

10/25/2006 5:30:40 AM