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Canada

The 1178L Wentzell has been growing very well in my patch all summer long, up till this weekend I still had 2 plants in my patch
#1 620 Boyton = NO FRUIT do to aborts.
#2 1178L wentzell = 1 fruit 30 ft out on the main vine putting on 5-6" growth for day.

Fruit was pollinated Aug 14th. Plant was 100 % healthy up till we recieved ALLOT of rain aug 27.28.29.

Aug 30th it was HOT and entire plant was wilted, BUT my 620 Boyton plant wasnt wilted at all. aug 31st still wilted and leafs turning yellow, Sept 3rd entire plant is wilted and DEAD!!

these pictures were taken Sept 3rd. I just added them to my diary if you have time can you look them over and take a guess what could have caused this plant to die within just a few days from being 100 % healthly and fruit growing 5-6" per day? nothing in my feeding program had been changed. its wierd hwo a plant can die so fast and the other plant right beside it didnt get effectted at all.

I just want to try to avoid this from happeing next year thats why i'm asking. I have added photos to my dairy about 1/2 ago but they probably wont be viewable till around midnight.
thanks

DaveM

9/5/2004 9:48:17 PM

Garden State Pumpkins

Sorry to see those pictures Dave but I would check out the cornell site on vegatables...a quick site search here will supply the site info. We all go crazy trying to determine what stops our plants from fruiting and wilting. The yellowing of the leaf looks to leave the veins still green in the leaf and then the necrosis comes in..common symptoms of bacterial wilt....but snapshot photos are not always the best way to get a good decision on what was the cause.. I would definitly burn the vines just for peace of mind. Have you seen any cucumber beetles recently?..a common vector for this..and I have seen plants next to each other one infested the next nothing. Other things may cause the same symptoms including borers eating away the vine. Hope you can solve the problem before next year...tissue samples would be a plus whie the vine is still intact..befores it degrades and gets secondary infections just to be sure what ya got...Grow em Big! Chuck

9/6/2004 9:01:04 AM

Canada

Myself, I'm blaming it on the cuke beetles, they started
showing up around in the patch around middle of june
i stuck with a weekly spraying of pestaside and they never
actually left they are still in the patch as of today even though there are just dead leafs laying around most likely
bacterial wilt but dont know for sure. If they are this bad next year i'm going to have to spray on a daily basis of find some kind of product that sticks to the plant and lasts for more then one day.

dave

9/6/2004 3:03:56 PM

Mastic Beach, New York

Dave..what were you useing for a insecticide?

9/6/2004 4:29:04 PM

Ctpumpkin@optonline.net

I thought we determined in another thread that the Cucumber Beetles had caused Bacterial Blight? Did you try pulling a portion of vine apart & look for the tell-tale strings?

9/6/2004 4:37:34 PM

Canada

Billy yes I was spraying both plants with a weekly shot
of fungicide and pestacide every week dureing the entire
growing season, Next year i'll need something stronger i guess,

One thing i did happen to notice tonight while working
the soil in the patch was the amount of cuke beetles crawling around all over the soil. possibly laying eggs??
i donno, but gave the entire patch a good spray down of pesticide let sit for an hour tilled it over and sprayed again in hopes to kill them all off.

Tremor , I cut all the vines in half all the way from the stump right to the very vine tip. all looked good all were 100 % solid not like my 620 Boyton plant were the entire stem was hallow with shallow viens.

should a stem be solid from stump out to stem ?

Later DaveM

9/6/2004 9:18:57 PM

Ohio

For those of us that are already done for the season should we spray for beetles now or wait till next spring?

9/7/2004 3:11:40 PM

Canada

Dave s, yes I was pondering the same thing, Should the soil be sprayed with Pestaside to kill off any beetles that are seen in the patch on the soil surface ? possibly laying eggs to overwinter for 2005 spring hatch? not sure how they breed ext ext thats why i ask

thanks

dave

9/8/2004 4:46:37 AM

Garden State Pumpkins

Look for a systemic (Merit) to apply to the soil and something like grubbex to remove the grubs.If its pathogenic maybe basamid is called for while you still have some fall heat available. Problem with cukes are if they are carrying the blight they only need to bite the plant and it gets infected...while the systemic will eventually kill em the plants are already infected...and infected plants carry on to the next plants...burn em!..Good Luck..Grow em Big!

9/8/2004 6:18:30 AM

Ctpumpkin@optonline.net

We're getting late to use Merit now. If I had done nothing all year, I'd still treat now to reduce the pressure on next year. But don't expect miracles.

Focus on establishing a good program for next year.

9/8/2004 7:43:08 AM