Virus
Through much of the early 90's I battled WMV II with no luck. Every July I
noticed the mishapened leaves and mottled fruit. The only solution was to
move out of the valley and into the uplands. I did keep growing a commercial
field of Prizewinners in the valley. One year I noticed that the virus didn't
attack the fields......I thought that was odd after all my years of struggle.
I had another small field down the valley with mostly sugar pumpkins planted
next to a 50 acre field of alfalfa. 2 weeks after the first cutting of
alfalfa, the sugar pumpkin field was wiped out with virus. I theorized that
the aphids lost their favorite home when the alfalfa was cut down and moved
into my patch. 2 days ago I was pulling plastic and drip tape with a farm
hand back at the original site of my virus problems. I said, " isn't it odd
that this field hasn't had a major virus problem in 3 or 4 years, yet right
down the valley we had real trouble aftyer the alfalfa was mowed". The farm
hand looked at me an said, " I used to mow the hay fields here, but haven't
mowed in 3 or 4 years...........We looked at each other and realized that the
mowing and subsequent elimination of the aphids favorite habitat may have
caused alot of our virus troubles. Now I'm not saying that this will cure all
peoples trouble with viruses, but I feel strongly that in our case, the
mowing around our field was a major contributing factor to an early onset of
virus. If your patch is near a large hay field that is mowed and you have
perennial trouble, eliminating the mowing or moving, probably will help.
pumkinguy
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