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red bluff, california, usa

went out yesterday afternoon and the pumpkin on my Little 03 (from 940 Mombert 98 (F) 650 Lloyd 99 (m), 659 McCallum 00 (M)looked to have a soft spot on the top, the fruit is at day 30 & about 150+ lbs. today the whole top had sunk in on itself and rotted inside. its been covered and off the ground since day 10. I'm baffled as to what could have caused this. I've been battling the deer but they hadn't touched this fruit (by the way I took coffee grounds from starbucks & spread it around my patch - no more deer problem, they dont like the smell)
Any suggestons or ideas? my next best is around 100 lb at day 20 & don't want the same thing happening

7/22/2004 9:20:02 PM

Rhode Island

quad
i may be wrong but it sounds to me like you have a disease problem in your soil
pumpkins that rot from the inside out indicate something was picked up from the soil and passed on to the fruit
there are many types of disease, some winter over and rear there ugly heads during humid weather, some can be air born, some we can cause by excessive watering and /or watering late at night, a spring loaded with cucumber beatles will also cause a bacterial wilt at this stage of the cycle
your best bet is to have a tissue sample done with a couple of your leaves and you will know for sure what is going on----it may be to late for this plant this year but you could also be correcting a problem for other plants in the area or for next years crop

dick ripga

7/23/2004 7:08:57 AM