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Cheyenne,WY

My pumpkin plant looks healthy and then at the ends of the vine, the new leaves are wilting and dying. The vine continues to grow and new leaves form, but I am assuming they will die soon too. In fact, several died overnight. Originally, I thought it was the heat, but it's cooled down. The right side of my plant is doing the same thing. I am also seeing similar problems on the pumpkin plant near it. I have not seen any cucumber beetles in the garden so I am hoping it's not bacterial wilt.

Normally, I would wait for the photos to get posted on my diary, but I decided to post them to my facebook page so they can be viewed right away and I can take corrective action soon.

Any suggestions?

View pictures here: http://www.facebook.com/PumpkinFanatics

7/11/2012 9:01:15 PM

Connecticut

To me looks like it could be phytophthora. You can cut a secondary and see if there is an brown/tanish/orange coloration in the inside as this could be related to fusarium. This is however how damage form a SVB grub will look.

My 'best guess' is along the lines of bacterial wilt. Mainly because the tips of the vine seem fine at the moment and bacterial wilt takes a little time to spread, where phytopthora can spread down 3 secondaries over night.

Sadly with a bacterial disease there is little you can do at this point except removal, but one of your pictures looks like the main vine near a potential pumpkin is the site of infection. It only takes one infected cucumber beetle to start and spread the infection so this is possible one got in and may have even left already.

My honest suggestion is removal of infected areas and monitor potential disease progress. I know this is not ideal by any means but there is certainly something going wrong with the plant.

7/11/2012 10:37:31 PM

Cheyenne,WY

Thank you for the advice. I just cut a secondary and it appears to be okay or at least I didn't see brown/tanish/orange colors. I will start cutting infected vines tomorrow when it's light out.

I am assuming this will drastically impact the growth of the pumpkin.....Bummer.

7/11/2012 10:51:58 PM

Williamsburg,KY

Im no pro, but it looks like flagging from heat. One of my plants looked the same way, and it is just fine now.

7/12/2012 2:45:38 PM

Arden, NC

I had severe phytopthora two years ago and chopped back vine (daily) until the plant was a mere 75 square feet, but I was able to take a 994.5 pound pumpkin to the Elkin weighoff. Good luck

7/13/2012 4:55:51 AM

Cheyenne,WY

That gives me some hope, thanks

7/13/2012 8:55:24 PM