Re: ants & Spiders and fruit aborts

You can usually tell if the fruit has aborted after it is too late. A healthy pumpkin will be hard to the touch and not shriveled. If it is still hard, keep going. Growth is usually rapid so you can also check measurements around the circumference every day. Growth is at night. Growth will vary. 

Spiders eat insects and usually are no threat to pumkins except for the webs attaching to everything. You may want to treat for bugs and the spiders will move to a more populated area.  I would worry more about cuke beetles, squash vine borers and stink bugs.

Hope this helps.

Rob
---- Bridgette Antoinette Tojek <honeybempowered@gmail.com> wrote: 
> Can anyone tell this first year grower how I might recognize if my fruit is
> or has aborted?
> 2ndly- just how detrimental are spiders to the pumpkin? I have seen a few
> spiders weaving their webs of inequities at the base of my Giant and it
> seems she has woven an entire cloth around the base. I covered it with fresh
> dirt until someone could further guide me with this. I had put an Ortho
> product at the base for slugs but it did not bother the spider. I do not
> know if this matters- I had hay around the base where the opening of the
> black plastic was because I had a 4x4 sheet covering the mound and
> transplanted the bouncing baby Giant into a hole I cut in the center and
> placed a very big clear plastic jug over the top to protect it from the 3
> frosts we had. Sometime around mid June I removed the plastic and placed
> flat rocks all around the mound so that the vines would not touch the ground
> and I sort of used them to guide the vines in the direction I wished. It is
> between the rocks that I noticed the fuzz and I was moving them away from
> the base periodically to give room for the stem to grow. I first thought I
> had a mold problem but it feels silky and I do see spiders. Any help will be
> greatly appreciated- Thanks so much
> Bridgette at I-Tang-O farms
> www.i-tang-o.com
> 
> -- 
> The Angel whispers serenity,and the echo is peace.
> 
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