This is a public-interest archive. Personal data is pseudonymized and retained under GDPR Article 89.

Strange Growth & Report from S. Manitoba

Hello everyone,

Just thought I'd let everyone know how things are going in Southern
Manitoba (Red River valley actually).  If you have not heard, we had a
record snowstorm in the middle of April followed by the the flood of the
century.  Well, this prevented most of growers from even getting on to the
land till nearly June.  Then the first two weeks of June were cold with
frost on several nights keeping planting to a minimum.  This is quite
unusual as I will normally have most of my garden planted by the middle of
May.  Now for the last 2 to 3 weeks it has been the usual hot and dry with
alot of wind.  My pumkins (Greer 1006, Geerts 940, Geerts 894) are all
starting to do fine but are understandable about 2-3 weeks behind.  The
Greer 1006 was the first to germinate and is by far the strongest of the
three.

My question / problem:

I have grown giant pumpkins for 5 years now in several different places, in
all but 1 year early in the pumpkins life (6 to 10 leaf stage) the leaves
will go very vieny and will curl around the edges.  The leaves stay very
small and remain green but the growth is very slow.  It happened again this
year on all three of my pumpkins.  It lasts about 1 to 2 weeks and then the
pumpkin resumes normal strong growth.  Each pumpkin this year is under a
different fertilizer regime (20-20-20, 10-30-10, and just compost).  I have
asked around over the years and the only answer I haved received that makes
even some sense is herbicide damage.  Well I do not use any herbicide and
my nearest neighbor is about 1 km away (about 1/2 mile) and I have not seen
or do they claim to use herbicide.  

Is it herbicide damage? and if so are young plants that sensitive to
herbicide?  Any ideas would be helpful as loosing 2 weeks in an already
short growing season can really hurt.

Daniel Bezte
Climatologist & Computer Technical Instructor
189 Devonshire Dr.  Wpg, MB
R2C 4N6
Other Mailing lists | Author Index | Date Index | Subject Index | Thread Index