Hello everyone,
Its my first time growing pumpkins and im having some issues.
The leafs are getting yellow and smaller pumpkins had rotten.
What can i do to help my plant?
Possibly bacterial wilt caused by cucumber beetles. Look for damage to the vines. If the leaves wilted during the day but recovered at night for a while, it probably is bacterial wilt.
OGSoulSlayer
This could be caused by a few different things. It doesn’t look like lack of water is an issue. Has the vine been snapped or roots been damaged? Any signs of pests? I have had squash vine borers get to mine in the past and this happened, but only to one vine, not the whole plant.
Pumpkins will also put down roots along their vines. While the tarp is great to keep weeds away, it will also prevent the plant from growing more roots.
Extreme-Rub-1379
From what end did they rot? If it’s the blossom end it could be a calcium deficiency, or a nitrogen poison, which are kinda the same thing in the plants eyes. You can try a dose of cal-mag or worm castings to help get some of those micro nutes to the plant. But that wilting plant looks like it’s done, prob won’t come back. 🙁 sorry
Do you have any gophers? That could be root damage.
Squash, especially pumpkins are notorious pest magnets. A good squash planting will have copious nasturtium and marigold to attract predatory bugs.
Also don’t remove the rotting fruit. It will attract predatory wasps. They are attracted to fermentation.
Edit: looking at your setup. If I used that black plastic where I live, everything in that picture would be dead. It heats the soil underneath 20-40°F, and it’s probably stressing the plant above the soil as well. Check the soil temp with a cooking thermometer. If it’s over 80°, I personally would remove the plastic. Use landscape fabric and straw to mulch and cut down on weed growth.
tootsandladders
The heat absorption from the black weed mat during peak sun is probably frying the leaves.
4 Comments
Possibly bacterial wilt caused by cucumber beetles. Look for damage to the vines. If the leaves wilted during the day but recovered at night for a while, it probably is bacterial wilt.
This could be caused by a few different things. It doesn’t look like lack of water is an issue. Has the vine been snapped or roots been damaged? Any signs of pests? I have had squash vine borers get to mine in the past and this happened, but only to one vine, not the whole plant.
Pumpkins will also put down roots along their vines. While the tarp is great to keep weeds away, it will also prevent the plant from growing more roots.
From what end did they rot? If it’s the blossom end it could be a calcium deficiency, or a nitrogen poison, which are kinda the same thing in the plants eyes. You can try a dose of cal-mag or worm castings to help get some of those micro nutes to the plant. But that wilting plant looks like it’s done, prob won’t come back. 🙁 sorry
Do you have any gophers? That could be root damage.
Squash, especially pumpkins are notorious pest magnets. A good squash planting will have copious nasturtium and marigold to attract predatory bugs.
Also don’t remove the rotting fruit. It will attract predatory wasps. They are attracted to fermentation.
Edit: looking at your setup. If I used that black plastic where I live, everything in that picture would be dead. It heats the soil underneath 20-40°F, and it’s probably stressing the plant above the soil as well. Check the soil temp with a cooking thermometer. If it’s over 80°, I personally would remove the plastic. Use landscape fabric and straw to mulch and cut down on weed growth.
The heat absorption from the black weed mat during peak sun is probably frying the leaves.