Re: fusarium wilt warriors

Once your patch gets something like this in the soil, usually the only way you can combat it is to stop growing in that area.  That is why most people should have more than one patch and alternate patches every year.  This is the same reason farmers alternate their fields, and vegetable gardeners alternate where they plant their vegetables every year.  However in the case of this fungus the experts reccomend  no planting for 3 years or more. 

I work in a lab with fungus every day, they are very hard to kill, specifically because they produce spores.  If you take away (pumpkins )what they need to grow on, that will help to reduce their numbers.  Spores will and can lie dormant for years.  If there is nothing in the soil for them to grow on , the environmental conditions will reduce their numbers in time.

There is no happy solution to your problem.
Here are some sites that you may want to look at:

http://www.ag.ohio-state.edu/~ohioline/hyg-fact/3000/3122.html
-This site talks about the fungus and some solutions

http://ohioline.ag.ohio-state.edu/hyg-fact/3000/3113.html
-Fusarium wilt of vine crops

*****   http://www.biolifesoil.com/
-Biolife all natural microbial soli treatment that fights fusarium wilt.
-This is a good site, I've used benificial microorganisms before to fight disease where no chemicals would or could.  They work very very well.



Hope some of this helps!!




>>> "John Failor" <buckeye5@bright.net> 04/04 12:37 AM >>>
Hi,

I am looking for others who have battled fusarium wilt in giant pumpkins. Last year I lost 9 of 10 AG's to fusarium wilt. The year before I lost 4 of 10 to the same disease but I mistakenly thought it was bacterial wilt. The disease is entrenched in my soil and have no where else to really grow pumpkins. So I need to control it. After more research I have identified it as fusarium wilt. from my readings it seems as though it is a very though strain. It starts at the leaves at the end of the vine and slowly more in to the more mature leaves. The leaves are yellowed and eventually die and it leaves the plant stunted and usually kills it but sometimes a few vines will survive and produce small but normally shaped pumpkins. The fact that the fruit and leaves don't get speckled and splotched makes me think it isn't a virus. And the fact that the plant doesn't die immediately(usually takes a few weeks to over a month) Has anyone successfully defeated or at least contained this monster?

     So far the only weapons I have found to fight it are Root Shield, Soil Gaurd and mycorrhizal root booster. All these are beneficial funguses that will coat the root system and invigorate that plant as well as fight the disease bad fungus that causes the disease. Anyone with positive results with this. I took a look at the archives and it looks like Brad Walters is also fighting this disease. I have come across how well these products work for other members of the curcurbita family like watermelons and assorted squash but have found little empirical data pertaining to AG's.

Thanks for any help,
John

---------------------------------------------------------------------
Pumpkin-growing FAQ: http://www.mallorn.com/lists/pumpkins/search.cgi
To sign-off this list, send email to majordomo@mallorn.com with the
message text UNSUBSCRIBE PUMPKINS
Other Mailing lists | Author Index | Date Index | Subject Index | Thread Index