Cleaned and Dried, Ready-to-Craft Gourds For Sale
Diseased Plants (Gourds)
What started out as a good gourd growing season ended up in a disaster. By July 4th, the gourd plants were growing lush with hundreds of baby gourds. A few days later I noticed brown spots and yellow leaves starting to appear.
Some folks on the Clubgourd internet list were noticing the same thing and we started spraying with copper fungicide. The trouble was every time I sprayed, it rained. That is what started the problem - rain and humidity.
Things started slowly and I was hoping to stop it from spreading anymore, so I kept spraying, hoping for the dry weather that would help control it. Unfortunately, the dry weather never arrived and I gave in to the fact that this season was a bust.
There were a few gourds that had grown to mature size and so I had some hope. But now I am finding most of those gourds rotting. Luckily I had a bed planted in another, drier area that did well. They were mostly small, ornamental gourds that I use for Christmas ornaments.
My mistake was not spraying before the disease arrived. Of course this was the first time it ever happened, so I wasn't looking for it.
I will be planting in new locations next year and using these areas for a different purpose.
Luckily I do have a few suppliers I buy gourds from, but it would have been nice to have my own fields filled with gourds growing. Now I will have to wait until next year and try again.
