sick pumpkin plant

[Dinghy]

I have a pumpkin plant that came up in my compost pile. I transplanted it to my main garden, and it is huge! It's already growing up and over the 4 foot fence. It has had tons of blossoms, but no pumpkins. I went out to look at it tonight and it has one little pumkin. Hurray!!! But.... the plant is getting real sick looking. There is white powdery stuff on the tops of the leaves and a lot of them are turning yellow and shriveling up. Is this normal or some kind of blight? I've never grown them before so I have no idea what the plant is supposed to look like. The leaves are about a foot long and the plant is taking over one whole corner of my garden. I want to leave it alone to see if it gets anything on it to amount to anything, but if it's got a problem maybe I should yank it out so the junk doesn't spread to the other plants or settle in the soil. Anybody have any ideas what it could be?

 

[goatlady2]

Your pumpkin has powdery mildew and it WILL spread so get rid of the pumpkin. Starts with lack of air circulation, hot, dry days and cool nights. The spores from the mildew will spread to other curcubits - cucumbers, squash, melons. Kills the plant eventually and causes underdeveloped fruits.

 

[Dinghy]

Thanks Goatlady. Not good news! My grandaughter will be crushed since we've been watching this monster take over for weeks. This "stuff" seemed to come overnight. It hasn't been hot here at all and it is raining constantly. I was afraid it was some kind of mildew, because I'm allergic to mold and I could feel my head tightening up as soon as I shook the leaves.

 

[Gingergirl]

If your weather is cool and damp, it may be downy mildew. If the pumpkin is not large enough to try and save it, I would destroy the plant. Its better to not let it stay in the compost or garden bed and continue to infect the rest of your garden.

 

[It'sJustMe]

Bummer! My one lonely pumpkin plant has the same white stuff on it, too, Dinghy! My Grands will be upset, too! Oh, well...I will tend to the killing chore tomorrow. Will that mildew stay in the composted remains, also? How do you rid the garden of the spores? It's Just Me

 

[goatlady2]

My encyclopedia of organic gardening says to dust succeptable plants with sulfa weekly to keep away. The spores form as black spots on the white stuff so if no black spots then no spoors yet. You really cannot take a chance on infecting you compost pole so toss in the garbage or burn the plant. Downy mildew forms on the underside of leaves and is thicker and fuzzier than powdery mildew which forms on the upper side of the leaves.

 

[Gingergirl]

FYI,

Harris Seed carries Magic Lantern Pumpkin, which is resistant to powdery mildew. I have grown these several times (since I lost a crop to PM) and have been very happy with them. They are a nice size, weight, color and flavor. Mine were just like the ones in the picture:

http://gardeners.harrisseeds.com/cart/detail.asp?subcat=83&product_id=1171

When they say space saving, remember it is still a pumpkin...all over the place.

 

[Dinghy]

I must have the powdery mildew because it's white, powdery, and on the tops of the leaves. I did a search on the internet last night and one site said to spray with ammonia water. I cut off the worst looking leaves and blasted the rest with Windex. I figure at this point I have nothing to lose! I threw the leaves in the garbage instead of the compost pile, and I'll pitch the whole plant at the end too. I just can't get myself to pull it out now when it finally got a pumkin on it. I'll have to check out the seeds for next year. I have a hill that is nothing but weeds,maybe I'll plant some there. It has good drainage and they can spread out all they want and not choke anything else out. I would love to try growing one of the jumbo types, but I don't know if we have a long enough season. My grandaughter would love to see one of those!

 

[Imaginethat!]

Would you keep us updated on how it goes? I've lost a few pumpkin plants and gourds to this. I never knew what to do, or what it was. Imagine if a few blasts with Windex was all it took to save it? Please keep us updated!!

Imaginethat!

 

[Dinghy]

So far, so good! There is another pumpking starting now, and it still has lots of blossoms. The leaves aren't turning yellow like before, but they still have white spots. I've only looked at it from the window because it's been raining. Maybe I can get out later and really check it good.

 

[rugmaker]

Dinghy, I can really sympathize with you. I have pumpkins all over the place they are even growing inside the chain link fence and taking over the whole backyard.
At first I didn't know what the plant was...it was huge! But thanks to everyone here and a little search and I got it figured out. We have had a lot of rain here too and had some yellow leaves, but the rest looks healthy.

At first I only had a few flowers, I thought that they weren't getting pollinated, so I got up early in the morning when the flowers opened and went around with a Q-tip and went from flower to flower. My husband thought that I was nuts and maybe I was...but now, I have pumpkins...several. It makes me happy seeing my husband go out everyday and count them. He is as excited as I am! Last year he went to a lot of work planting watermelons and canteloupes but they burnt up in the hot sun. We had gone out of town and the person that was supposed to water them didn't. It seemed that whenever we went to a lot of trouble to plant seeds nothing happened. This year, I sprinkled seeds everywhere and threw all my produce in the compost pile and low and behold things starting growing. Actually stuff started growing everywhere I didn't want them to, but, if the plants are healthy...we just let them go where they want. We can't wait to have our home grown pumpkins.

I also had good luck with cucumbers, green beans and my herb garden this year!

I'm anxious to see if your windex works...let us know.