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Cincinnati,OH

Just sent my plant to the garbage bag.It looked like the leaves posted in bruisers diary.I could tell something was up right from the start.Ive never had this problem before but i usually buy my seed from a catalog ,this year i didnt.Does anyone out there test seed for viruses? Im going to try solar sterilization on the mound and replant ,will this be enough to get rid of the virus?All my tool have gone to the bleach bath.

6/20/2001 4:29:46 PM

Herndon, VA

Good Luck. I have read the virus needs a host to overwinter, which is usually weeds or insects unless your seeds are infected. I think you have a reasonable chance that it will be ok to plant next year, but I think the odds are against you being able to kill it all off this year. Any bugs that have been munching on your plants may return and bring the virus back with them.

I don't see the harm in giving it a try though. The worst that will happen is that you will have to pull another plant, but it's better to try than to just give up without a fight. My .02 anyway. --Bruiser

6/21/2001 9:24:03 PM

Kentucky - USA

I'm sorry to hear that sasquash. And Bruises right. I dont think that we should give this up without a fight.

Maybe the 3 of us ought to compare seed charts and what plants that the virus first effected. Maybe we can pinpoint maybe the source of the infected seeds.

I dont mean no offense to anyone. I would just like to keep this from happening to somebody else next year.

Good Luck

Tim

6/22/2001 12:01:04 PM

Connecticut, USA

This is also a concern to us when selecting seeds to give out on the site. None of the seeds we gave away here came from plants that showed ANY sign of mosiac virus. We would NEVER give out seeds from a plant known to be infected. I know you are not accusing anyone of anything but I want people to know we did think of this. I will check into finding a place to have seeds and other plant matter tested.

6/22/2001 2:11:18 PM

Kentucky - USA

I'm sorry. I didn't mean to imply that the infected came from bigpumpkins.com either. I can say right now that none of my infected plants seeds came from you guys. I have even
reodered seeds from you to start over.

What I am saying is that they are a good chance that the 3 of us could have recieved the infected seeds from the same individual. And since they could still be a ton of infected seeds left that could get distributed next year I think this out to be looked into.

Also, I would like to point out that I dont think no one is distributing bad seeds on purpose. I'm sure if the evidence did point in somebodies direction that they would more than happy to just destroyed the bad seed(if they are any left) to get them out of circulation.

Good Luck Guys

Tim

6/22/2001 3:40:53 PM

Long Island,New York

I have no statistics to blurt out,no real concrete numbers. But after growing these for 4 years and reading everything I can associated with cucurbits, I feel comfortable saying the odds of your mosaic comming from seed is 1000x LESS likely than you getting it from your nieghborhood aphids,ccb's,and other insects. Only ONE bite is needed from an infected bug to introduce the virus to your plant. Even if the bug died from that bite of tasty but systemicly poisoned pumpkin (some people think if the plant is systemically treated its safe) your plant has been infected.Especially down south...for some reason this year I see more M problems than usual down south.I really doubt if the seed is the culpret..................G

6/22/2001 5:50:47 PM

Liverpool , England

Yo Sasquash,
I'd lay my life or my wifes on the line on the fact that your virus is from insects...if it was from the seed then the virus would start with the seed leaves and the plant would die within a couple of days of germination. I had it in some marrows and cucumbers a few years back and it always starts at the newest growth...by cutting off the last few feet of the plants I managed to save most of them as it did not seem to travel back down the vine...and still got some 70lb marrows on them.

Alun

6/22/2001 8:48:08 PM

Herndon, VA

LIpumpkin is correct, mosaic is spread much more by insect than by seed. One bite and it is all over.

Can it be transmitted by seed? YES

However, anyone who thinks their virus came from seed, give this a thought; the seed would have to come from an infected plant...which is probably not going to grow an AG of any size that someone would want seeds from!! For anyone that has seen what this virus can do, do you really think a plant infected with it would grow an 800lb fruit?!?

In my case, I KNOW where the seeds came from-- MY OWN PUMPKIN from last year. The seeds had a germination rate of about 1 in 16 and you could tell that the seeds felt 'empty'. Not only that, they came from a rather small AG grown on a sickly plant which could easily have been infected by mosaic via bugs since I did nothing to control them. The seedlings looked sick right from the start, but seemed to bounce back...I WISH they would have died within a few days of germination, it would have saved me a lot of trouble. Initially, I thought they were "too close to the grow light" and simply moved on. Since the problem seemed to go away, I did not in my wildest dreams think it was a virus. It was only later that I read these symptoms to be common with mosaic.

Luckily, I did not distribute my seeds to anyone and I have since destroyed the whole lot. For those who do not believe the virus is seed-borne, or that it can survive past germination, check out the following links.

http://extension-horticulture.tamu.edu/cucurbit/leaf/29.1.html
http://www.aces.edu/dept/extcomm/publications/anr/anr-809/anr-809.html
http://biology.anu.edu.au/Groups/MES/vide/descr753.htm#Range
http://www.ext.nodak.edu/extpubs/plantsci/hortcrop/pp656w.htm#mosaic

6/22/2001 10:46:36 PM

Herndon, VA

KEN- The seeds I got from bigpumpkins.com grew very healthy plants that did not show ANY signs of the virus.

--Bruiser

6/22/2001 10:51:35 PM

Connecticut, USA

I agree that it is far more likely to have been caused by insects. If there is a fairly easy/inexpensive way to test seeds we will do it. I have a message into my local agricultural testing station.

If the seeds were a problem it would be very wide spread. This is another reason to test if we can. We are becoming a sizable distributor of seeds!

6/25/2001 6:40:02 AM

Kentucky - USA

Sorry guys..

Last week was a very very bad week for me. The good news is that I contacted one of my old FFA teachers. He said that maybe he could pull a few favors with some agriculture departments around here and get a couple of seeds left that I thought was infected tested.

I know most of you guys are thinking it's bug related and it may be but due to certain facts I dont think thats the case here. Hopefully all of this will be cleared up soon.

Good Luck Guys

TAdams

6/25/2001 8:50:31 PM

South Hill, Virginia

If nothing else, we will all become more educated on the Mosaic Virus. I'm very interested in hearing what everybody finds out so I can avoid this plaque. LIPumpkins, any ideas on why it is more prevalent down south?

6/25/2001 10:48:10 PM

Long Island,New York

Im not so sure if its more prevalent down south or that the south's season has advanced further by date than the north because of the warmer environment.Perhaps (God forbid !) the north will catch up as thier season catches up. I think you want to look at the facts that the bugs are more apt to overwinter down south w/o a killing winter, and native weeds/crops that are infected already are also more likely to survive the winter than up north where everything dies.This will increase the spread drasticly....just my two cents....G

6/26/2001 3:39:22 PM