From

Location

Message

Date Posted

western Kentucky

I lost every plant i had this season. I had 2 plants in a patch down the road and one in the garden behind my house. I am 100% sure that the 2 down the road died because of the transition between cool rainy days that lasted 2 weeks and and the extreme heat that followed. The temps were in the low 80's one day and in the upper 90's the next. this scorched all the leaves and left the vines being the only thing green.
But I am not so sure as to what happened to the plant behind my house. It went through the same type of weather. The patches are about 300 yards apart. This plant's vine became all mushy and soggy and had a mold or fungus-like stuff on it. It died from the vine up. I am 95% sure that it wasn't borers becaused i checked, and checked again. I think that maybe it was something in the soil, or it might've been the effect of the 2 weeks of rain on the vine. The ground was saturated with water, water even stood for a while in spots (1-2 days).
Does any one know what happened and how i can prevent it from happening next year????

Thanks Justin

9/17/2001 5:24:46 PM

Did the leaves have spots on them? It might be powdery mildew.

9/17/2001 7:26:41 PM

Connecticut, USA

Sounds like what happened to me. One plant expert told me it was fusaria. He also told be that we should have our plant tested at the first sign of disease in order to determine what it is. Once a plant is infected with one disease it is an easy target for other diseases. Over the winter I plan on researching some new disease prevention techniques.

9/18/2001 6:32:17 AM

western Kentucky

ok, thanks for the replies.

9/19/2001 4:52:51 PM

Topsfield, Ma.

on the subject of testing potential disease stressed plants,what organization or person performs such service ?
been asking this question for over a year now without any answer.

9/19/2001 9:04:27 PM

Buffalo, NY

Duff, try this link from Cornell, they do many different analyses:
http://www.cals.cornell.edu/dept/cnal/cnalmen8.html
Scroll down near the bottom.

Maybe even better is their Plant Disease Diagnostic Clinic found here:
http://plantclinic.cornell.edu/Default.htm

Click on the Vegetables & Herbs. For Fees, see:
http://plantclinic.cornell.edu/fees.htm

Hope this helps.
Mark

9/19/2001 11:14:44 PM

Connecticut, USA

Last year I took some plant samples to a local argricultural testing station. They were setup by the state to help local farmers. They now can be used as a resource for all state residents. Search on "testing station" on this site to see my diary entry from last year with the website address.

9/20/2001 6:44:41 AM

Topsfield, Ma.

mark and ken,
thanks very much for the input. goin' there right now !
duff

9/20/2001 7:28:23 PM