Mini-Update - Bad News (of course)

Well, the Mosaic Virus from my Burpee Prizewinners has started to show up in 
two of my AG's now. The 2 BEST plants that I have.
It is only about two tiny dark green dots on two of the smaller leaves, but I 
notice things like that. The giveaway though is the fact that the new female 
flower ovaries are all marbled with yellow/green mottling. Just great.
The only plants that don't have any signs of the virus are the 946.5 Geerts x 
self, which I am only really growing and crossing for seed, and the other 780 
Mombert which is mutated, with the mutated flowers and stupid fruit, (too 
round, and not growing very fast). The 780 Eaton which is one showing some 
viral signs in the new fruit, does have a couple fruits set with no mottling, 
but are shaped weird. I am wondering if this is just a trait of the 780 
Eaton. They are long and round, but are flattish on the blossom end, with a 
weird "ring" around that end of the fruit. Anyway I hope that these will be 
O.K., but probably not as good as they would on a healthy plant.
Both the 780's, 780 Mombert and one of my 780 Eaton's, were on the way to a 
1000+ pumpkin. The one 780 Mombert Is so different from the other. First, the 
main vine got broken (I think someone stepped on it), and none of the vines 
were buried, so it was living off the tiny connection left at the main stump, 
and it was KEEPING UP with the other one with the full stump. Only about 2 
days behind in first female flower too. The size and shape of the females on 
plant #1 were round and long, and HUGE compared to plant #2, whose females 
are round sphere shaped and only half as big, AND had the mutated 
hermaphrodite flowers. I am going a step further in crossing. I am only using 
pollen from the BEST 780 Mombert to cross with the BEST of my other plants. I 
think a lot of times, pollen from inferior plants is used. Just because it is 
a 946.5 Geerts or whatever, if the pollinator is a sickly plant, it certainly 
won't contribute as much to the offspring as a healthy plant would. The only 
problem, is the best plant is also the one showing signs of the virus. I am 
sure using it's pollen won't cause any infection problems (well almost sure!) 
in the other plant it is crossed with, and/or the resulting seeds, but I 
certainly don't want to breed in a lack of resistance to viral diseases. Of 
course, the fact that only one got infected doesn;t necessarily mean the 
other has any more resistance. It could just mean that the same infected 
beetles didn't chew on and transmit the virus to the other plant. I think the 
benefits of the plant #1 outweigh any possible virus suceptability.
I have some fruit on 780 Mombert #2 which is crossed with the 780 Eaton. (780 
x 780!), and after I noticed all of the mutated flowers, I selfed the next 
fruit on the plant, hoping to leave it on long enough to get some seeds to 
send out for anyone who likes to experiment with these weird things.
Anyway, I don't know what to do. All I can think to do is to hope that the 
virus is kept in check and doesn't affect the growing fruits. I wish there 
were some sort of anti-viral remedy that would at least keep it from getting 
worse, or something. The new mottled female flowers look SO good otherwise. I 
have never seen anything so big, and perfectly shaped (round and long), 
before  they are even pollinated!
My selfed 946.5 Geerts (both of them) have an interesting trait. All of the 
females have green stripes on them. I wonder if this is good, or bad?
Well, just when I am at the point when I can hardly deal with the problems I 
have had (getting all of the vines buried, getting the flowers pollinated, 
foliar feeding, drip bottles, fungiciding and dusting, etc. on time, and the 
fact that I am like 1-2 months behind everyone else....a virus outbreak hits. 
How nice. How many things can possibly go wrong for one person? And I thought 
it was bad last year when my only big pumpkin got destroyed by a tractor. Oh 
wait, it's still too early, something like that will probably still happen. 
Wow, something to look forward to after going through all of these problems 
now. Sheesh.


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