Thursday, July 14, 2005

Watermelons in Peril?


Well, I visited the watermelon patch and found that the fungus was on the leaves of some of the watermelon plants. It may only be attacking some of the seedless melons right now.

I mixed a fungicide of canola oil, baking soda, sulfur and tap water into a spray bottle. I mixed it up and sprayed it on the leaves of the watermelon that had the brown spots. I tried to get under the leaves as well. The really bad leaves I cut from the stem and placed in a plastic bag. I probably trimmed 14 leaves. Hopefully, the fungus will not get into the stem where I cut off the leaves. The spray bottle jammed after a while, maybe too much oil? So I started pouring the mixture on the leaves. I ran out by the time I got to the last part of the patch affected by this outbreak. So now I have three groups: one set of leaves sprayed, one with the mixture poured on them, and another that was left pretty much untouched. I will collect a leaf tomorrow for closer examination.

The Ultra Cool and Moon & Stars varieties appear to be un-affected by the fungus so far. I might dig up a potato plant tomorrow as well if it is not too wet.

Cycled tonight and got in a good ride. I started a little late but I probably rode for about 30 minutes. Visited some areas of the subdivision I do not think I had been to before. We let the yard get brown when it was hot instead of paying for water to keep it green. Well, that might have been a mistake. The dead grass has started to mildew since we have had about 5 days of overcast and rainy weather. I went out and raked the front yard to de-thatch it and get rid of some of the mildewed grass. I hope it does not rain tomorrow so I can mow it and get a little more air down into the grass and try to promote some new growth.

My mother's flower garden is looking nice. Here are some pictures

1 comment:

Ash said...

Hello mister_poppular,

Please keep us informed how your watermelons are progressing. It is a great tip.

Ash

http://www.easygardendesign.com/