pumpkin sudden rot on vine

[DonV]

My pumpkin was fine and then suddenly (1-2 days) rotted, some aprts of the surface look like spray paint that was not applied right and "bubbled". it rotted on the bottom - I only noticed because I saw top texture change noted above and examined it closer.

No idea, no sign of bugs.

[HoneyBerry]

I've had that happen before. It could be from soil moisture where the pumpkin touches the ground. Fungus creeps into the pumpkin from the moist soil. My successful pumpkins have been positioned so that they don't touch wet ground. For example, my pumpkin sprount landed in a dry pile of hay-like grass that was next to my garden. That pumpkin did very well, did not rot. I had success with pumkins when I was a kid. The pumpkin garden was a 3x3 square hole in the patio. The pumpkin sprouts landed on the concrete and grew to he full size, did not rot. My feet sometimes pick up fungus from the dirt. There's fungus in wet dirt.

[rainbowgardener]

I have seen various ways of keeping the pumpkin from sitting on the soil:


https://teachinggardenpwc.files.wordpre ... 775996.jpg

https://parentingpatch.com/wp-content/up ... den-12.jpg


https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/23 ... bbdd1a.jpg


https://www.hpaa.org.uk/images/vegetable ... in-mp1.jpg


https://usercontent1.hubimg.com/7813154_f260.jpg

Couldn't find an image of it, but Barbara Kingsolver in Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, recommends putting a couple paper plates under each fruit.

[imafan26]

I put a terra cotta pot under my pumpkins. I saw something when surfing the internet earlier in the week there was a plastic basket/cradle made just to keep watermelons off the ground.

https://www.gardeners.com/buy/melon-and- ... 86837.html

[HoneyBerry]

The pictures are great examples. I love the pumpkin a-frame trellis. I'll have to try that. It seems like a good solution for powdery mildew as well as rot.

[rainbowgardener]

I'm sure it would help with the powdery mildew.

The picture doesn't show it, but usually to trellis pumpkins, you have to put support slings under them, tied to the trellis. Otherwise, they rip themselves right off the vine when they start getting heavy. Old nylon stockings or anything stretchy like that works great for the slings.

[applestar]

Yep. It's hard to tell but that A-frame ones might be decorative baby "pumpkins" like Jack-be-Little?

[DonV]

It could have been soil moisture but it occurred during a relatively dry spell and I have raised beds with loose soil (so they drain well). It could have happened over time but the odd texture on the top appeared very suddenly, then I examined the pumpkin, I also rotated/moved it every 1-2 weeks - never noticed any moisture under it or problems, I do not think I moved it in at least a week since I found the problem.

[jal_ut]

I like to move the pumpkin a little toward the root and sit it up on its blossom end, then you get nice round pumpkins instead of flat and yellow on one side. If you take off all blossoms except the first one to set on the vine, you will get a much larger pumpkin too. Ya, a board or something is good to sit the pumpkin on and isolate it from the ground.

[imafan26]

I usually sit mine on a pot.