Re: 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
>
You know, I was considering planting some mini trap crops and repelling
crops this year to add an extra level of protection from the CMV recurring.
I planned on a lot of radish and even tansy.
Mainly because of cucumber beetles, which I think were the vectors, since I
never found one aphid on any of the plants last year at all.
We have swarms of cucumber beetles though, and they seem to be resistant to
a lot or pesticides. So I had to use a cocktail last year, as well as
floating row cover, and they still were there like crazy.
It sounds interesting about the alfalfa, maybe I can figure out a way to
grow at least a small block of it. It probably couldn't hurt.
Companion planting has been a method used for centuries to avoid pests and
disease.
-Steve
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