Pumpkin problems

[JimineyC]

Hi.
I've got some Baby bear pumkins growing. It's my first time growing veg and my pumpkins are the ones I'm most looking forward to out of all I've planted. Until today it was all going fine, however one of the plants has been hit by two things.
Some leaves have developed a yellow spotting. I don't think it's Mosaic virus but I could be wrong. Does anyone have any ideas?
Also, the first pumpkin that was developing I found today detatched on the soil with a large hole in it. Does anyone recognise the damage as Slugs/Snails or Mice? The pumpkin was about 2cm round. I'm hoping slugs as atleast I have measures at hand for dealing with them.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I've attatched a couple of reference shots.

thanks

jim

[Shortie]

Hi JimineyC

I can't hekp with the rusty spots. Hope it's nothing too serious as I think I've seen some on mine this year..

The hole - definately looks like something's been at it as you can almost see the teeth marks!

It might be mice, but do you have chickens? Mine absolutely butchered one of my butternut squash last year and it looks similar...

[nick the grief]

Piccie 1 could be red spider mite, have a look underneath the leaves & see if you can see something brown moving around they are only just about visible to the naked eye. If it is this spray with soapy water & it'll kill them off eventually, the 2nd one I would say is SLug damage. It may have been started off by a bird pecking at it but it looks like slugs to me.

[Shortie]

Nick - does soapy water have to be made from insecticidal soap or can I use fairy liquid?

[nick the grief]

Good Question Shortie.
Either I guess as you're not using gallons of it you just want it to stick to the bugs & suffocate the little critter. Insceticidal would be better but if desperate ......

[JimineyC]

Thanks for the posts Shortie and Nick.

After further investigation I think that the mottling on the pumpkin leaves is most likely spider mite. I've got an organic spray which I've used today and hopefully I'm on the right track. Mites weren't that obvious but I had no magnifying power and after a long shift the light was fading - there were some little things around though. Also, I bought a reference book today - Pests and Diseases (RHS, published by D&K) which had good photographic examples and the spider mite effect looked the closest match.

As to the actual veg damage, no i don't have chickens, though we would if my lass had her way. I have bird feeders so I do actively encourage birds into the garden so possibly wood pigeons might have had a go. Or maybe a squirrel - he's turning into a right pest - he's actually eating the plastic bottom of my nut feeder! -but i digress. I think it's slug damage and I now have to think of ways of protecting the pumpkins. Any tips? I have beer baited slug traps, slug gravel and wood chip mulch around. The beer traps are effective but there are always slugs and snails to come. Maybe it's time for another nemaslug dousing.

Thanks again
Jim

[pickledtink]

If you are still having problems and the slug pellets don't seem to be working it could also be woodlice. They totally ravished my Pumpkins last year. Every single baby fruit was got at one after the other and I couldn't figure it out until I actually found one woodlice inside the hole. I had never realised before what nasty little horrors they are. They can destroy seedlings too as they scoff the roots when they're young and tender.

[JimineyC]

Whenever I lift up my slug traps there's a seething mass of woodlice scurrying for cover. Fortunately there's more than a few in the slug traps as well. I am aware they can be a pest and have found them in the roots of some of my container plants. I used to not like killing things but since I've started gardening my attitudes have changed! I have seen woodlice in a half eaten strawberry, but whether they did the damage or were opportunistic I don't know.
I lost my second pumpkin the same way as the first and I am convinced that it is birds or a squirrel now. I have pegged down some plastic mesh and so far they are untouched. If it is a squirrel then the plastic will be bitten through and the fruit still eaten, but it would be a harsh way to find out which pest is at work. I'm going to order some fine netting and metal mesh just in case. The problem with pumpkins is they sprawl over such a large area.

[pickledtink]

Maybe rig something up to cover the individual fruits?

[JimineyC]

Exactly what I'm trying to do. I've cut some mesh into smaller areas and I am pegging these down around the fruits. However, on checking the next two that were growing, the merest knock sperated them from the stem. No-one else to blame but me. The fifth fruit has grown quite large, 6 cm in diameter at this point so it's grown much larger than any of the others. I wonder if the first few weren't being invested in much by the plant but this one is? Maybe pumpkins do this, and the first few aren't worth bothering with, or maybe the hot weather just wasn't helping and I wasn't feeding/watering enough?
So, I have one fruit going strong and the potential for atleast a couple more to come on - I can see some flowers have opened this morning so I'll have to see if any are females.
You can't rest for a moment with veg!

[pickledtink]

Feed and water like mad. They're really greedy. If they're strong enough they'll fight off most things except the P word.