From

Location

Message

Date Posted

Oak Grove, Mn

i would like to test the seeds from this years pumpkin for any seed borne disease. I am not sure how to do this. I would appreciate any information you might share.

10/26/2013 11:34:00 AM

Piqua, Ohio

pumplobster can help you with this, maybe he'll see this and respond.

10/26/2013 2:36:21 PM

Oak Grove, Mn

i was hoping matt d might have an idea

10/27/2013 3:33:06 AM

Linden, Mi.,

Send them to a lab, but the cost is much !

10/27/2013 7:46:24 PM

Connecticut

Sorry for my delay reply, but I am taking a break from the pile of e-mails;-)

To answer question, the simple answer is “yes”, but there is not really a good way to go about this. The major question would be what are you looking to test for? (Bacteria, virus, other…)

In short there are some diseases that are seed transmittable; the ones of major concern are viruses which do transmit by seeds, but in a very low percentage rate. The best real world advice I can give you is what did the parent plant and pumpkin look like at harvest? If it was basically in good health then the odds are in your favor, to me, if the plant was heavily virus infected than I would only plant the seeds if the cross was very rare or of high interest, as there would be a risk of possible transmission.

I know your question seems simple but the identification techniques are very specific so that is why there is not really a general disease screen that can be preformed.

Hope this helps.

11/6/2013 9:41:37 PM

The North Coast

Peracetic acid at 8000-10000 ppm soaked for 30 minutes and you are clean.

3/3/2014 9:45:10 AM