Melons, Pumpkins, Cantaloupes

By this time of the season I usually see pumpkin fields infected with powdery mildew pretty commonly throughout the mid-Atlantic. And while powdery is present in many pumpkin fields it does not seem as bad as in previous years.

I have been seeing some ozone damage to cucurbits and oddly to tomatoes over the last 2 weeks or so, which is not unusual with the hot hazy conditions we are having. Ozone is the most common air pollutant in the eastern United States.

Growers may already be seeing leaf symptoms on their cantaloupe plants that are often misdiagnosed as a foliar disease. However, these leaf symptoms described below indicate manganese (Mn) toxicity which is related to low soil pH.

One of the main things a grower can do to ensure a good quality pumpkin is to be sure they maintain their fungicide applications for as long as they continue to harvest fruit. Maintaining good foliage cover for your pumpkins results in pumpkin handles that are dark green stout and firm (fig. 1).

Gummy stem blight (GSB) was found in an Eastern shore muskmelon field in the last few weeks. It is a cucurbit disease caused by the fungal pathogen Didymella bryoniae. This fungus is favored by cool to warm, rainy weather. It can infect a host at any stage of growth and affects almost all parts of the plant including leaves, stems and fruits.

I do not have to tell you that these frequent and heavy rains we have been having over the last 2-3 weeks have really increased the amount of foliar and at times soil diseases in our vegetable crops. In cucurbits foliar diseases such as Alternaria, gummy stem blight and an odd one Cercospora (figs 1a, 1b) all have been found causing moderate to severe defoliation in some fields that are heavy with fruit.

I have been seeing and receiving a few samples of yellowing (chlorosis) around the margins of cantaloupe leaves (Fig. 1). The marginal chlorosis observed in figure one would indicate salt burn, which is a noninfectious problem that mostly affects cantaloupes. This yellowing at the leaf margin is likely the result of guttation, which is how plants exude water at the margin of the leaf.

There have been several reports of odd looking damage to watermelon transplants being grown in greenhouses these past couple of weeks. The damage does not appear to be cold damage per se, but more of a strange environmental/weather one. Watermelon transplants, along with some other vegetables, began showing dark pitted lesions on their cotyledons (fig. 1).

Several reports lately of very deformed watermelon plants, but also a few cucumber and cantaloupe fields. These distortions (fig. 1) most of the time are being caused by melon aphids Aphis gossypii Glover. Melon aphids are small and range in color from a light/dark green mottle (fig. 2), which is most common to whitish, yellow (seen during hot, dry weather), pale green, and dark green almost black forms. The legs are pale with just the tips of some parts black. The cornicles also are black. One trait of melon aphids that make them particularly difficult to manage is that unlike other aphids, their populations do not fade with higher summer temperatures. Immatures look like adults, only smaller.

What will be discussed 1.Field problems of early season virus infections 2.Aphid and beetle studies 3.Aphid transmission of viruses 4.Beetle transmission of viruses 5.Recommendations