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Entry Date
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Location
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Wednesday, August 05, 2020
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big moon
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Bethlehem CT
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Entry 66 of 103 |
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Mite damage to watermelons. This is what the damage looks like, the mite damaged leaves will usually be around the stump and it will progress outwards to the periphery of the patch. Mites are now the least of my melon problems. I lost two plants to stump collapse and a third is being nursed along with only a quarter of the plant left. My fourth somewhat healthy plant has a nice melon on it, but it has something going on with the melon stem. It is turning brown slowly rotting. I will paint it with daconil. Too bad, the weather has been perfect for melons.
I would love to hear other growers thoughts on what causes the stumps to blow apart. Two of mine were on squash and the third one was on a BG. I did not have big problems last year or the year before. I am thinking that one thing that makes a difference is that when you push them with ferts, and water it can trigger maximum growth and it becomes too much for the plant to handle. When I had them in the big field I did not push them, I added my fertilizer in the preseason as a granular and pretty much rode things out. Very little pushing occured last year or the prior year. The melons were left to their own. This year I pushed them hard. Weekly fertilizer and frequent watering. It was working too. GRRRRRRRR
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