This question interests me. I have tended to have disease and wilt on melons and watermelons. This has relibably shown up the 3rd year if plantings are made three years in a row in the same area. I have thought that much was soil disease and still do, but perhaps a lot is leaf fungals. I wonder how Dan and others even get the main crop to get finished unless it it a new area to melons.

This year I did better and some of the watermelons did not die in late July and are making a 2nd crop and are healthy. Sooo, I think that a lot of the problem is leaf fungals as the wilting happened in total unison...time after time. One day things would be beautiful. The next day a leaf or two would be wimpy. The next day it would be all over most of the patch. I am believing that the disease has to be airborne to be that quick and in unison.

We gardeners are not likely to have commercial grade fungicides.

Well, down here, I plant out in February, so I'm harvesting melons (canteloupe, honeydew, and even Armenian cukes, which manage to hold on a bit longer) in April. No sign of any problem until late July, That's why I'm not growing large melons, that would take a whole season to develop. After July, it goes downhill. I'm a bit perplexed why a fungal infection decides to wait until mid-July to set in, but it might be because I'm watering more, so the soil and leaf surfaces might be more moist.

Not sure that commercial grade fungicides will help a lot EXCEPT that such fungicides can be "penetrative", such that they can cure an infected plant. Residential fungicides are all "contact" ones, which just kill fungal spores on the surface, so you have to spray to prevent infection. Once the plant is infected, it's too late.

So Wayne, do you apply fungicides?

I have only a couple times applied fungicide....kind of garden grade. I plan to try more and regular applications as this thing has been heartbreak many times...beautiful crop...then sudden decline as fruits are beginning to first ripen.

I just googled Quadris fungicide...$199 a gallon...heh, heh.

Are you sure it's a fungal infection? What evidence is there? (don't know that holes is evidence of fungus - ?). I wonder if the vines are just pooped out --> end of life.

Plants don't just "poop out", especially in mid-summer. Something kills them. I thought it was heat, because it started when it got very hot, but I'm now pretty sure that wasn't it.

The evidence? Plants with damaged leaves, and were almost impossible to keep from wilting. Eventually dying entirely. Fungal infections damage leaves, and dried up spots in the leaves fall out, and leave behind holes. Classic fungal symptoms. Anthracnose, probably.

On doing some research, recommended fungicide spray schedule for melons is chlorothalonil alternated weekly with tebuconazole, with occasional copper sprays. Turns out that tebuconazole IS a penetrating fungicide that is available to the residential user, so it has curative qualities. Not pricey. The two have different FRAC codes as well, which is important. My strategy for next year is taking shape. Tebuconazole is also useful for greens, which chlorothalonil is largely not. Neither is seriously toxic, though you don't want to bathe in them.

Dan, Thank you for your posts.

Do be careful with fungicide preparation. The tank life (as in, concentrate mixed with water) is finite, especially for chlorothalonil (Daconil). That's because the stuff hydrolyzes. At neutral pH, it'll last a week or so. At high pH, it lasts only HOURS. GardenTech doesn't tell you that! My tap water pH is 9.5, so I need to de-alkalinify my water before mixing with Daconil. A spoonful of vinegar makes the medicine stay good. I've learned some lessons on this matter ...

Tebuconazole (lots of trade names for that) is much more stable.

I had the exact opposite results this season. Generally my watermelons start off great and produce a flush of melons by mid July and then rapidly go down hill and are all gone by late Aug. Not this eason, I had to plant them 3 times as the first 2 plantings were stunted and died, for reasons unknown to me. I finally started picking the survivors by late Aug this year and more are forming as I type, way too late now of course but the plants look healthy and productive. btw, I never use sprays of any type on my melons since they are really just for snacks and giveaways. They are on their own other than watering and weeding. No help for you Dan but it's a rainy day here and I'm bored ;-)

Well, as I said, in principle my season should go through November, so I find it kinda frustrating that I lose my plants in August.

"Plants don't just "poop out" "

I beg to differ. The growing conditions up here are obviously much, much different than southern states, but I can tell you for certain my melons poop out after setting a good crop in mid summer -- after the melons ripen the vines naturally decline, no evidence of disease or insect infestation. Up here, the pooping out occurs September-ish. Which is fine, because any fruit that would set wouldn't have time to ripen anyway.

Yes, but there is a REASON that they poop out, and I'm convinced the reason in my case is fungal infection. "No evidence of disease"? Do you know what disease looks like? They won't have an armband on them identifying a disease. I see many symptoms of fungal damage in July and August.

Commercial melon growers in southern states see peak production in June, July, and August. That's just because it's hot then. But the plants don't die when the temperatures get down to 90F (where my temps are now), and they see production after that. Their plants don't "poop out."

Not sure where you are, but where nighttime temperatures drop below 50F, flavor is usually compromised, and growth is seriously stunted. My nighttime temps now are 65-70F.

Melons are annuals and as such once seed maturation happens the plants have fulfilled their purpose and start to decline. It's the same with other cucurbits as well. You let a few cucumbers mature on the plants and their production basically comes to a halt.

I'm not saying that you don't have fungal issues, just that the production of the plants is finite. If you have picked for a few months by the time mid summer hits I wouldn't expect the plants to continue on much more. As plants start to decline they become more susceptible to fungus and other diseases.

Commercial growers could be planting later and or doing succession planting, both instances would allow the plants to grow later in the year before decline starts to happen. If you are starting to get ripe fruit in April and commercial peak production is July, give or take a month, this is likely.

Rodney

That's a fair point that commercial growers may get late harvest by planting later. Also true that cucurbits aren't likely to be perennials. Maybe I should be doing a second planting. But as I said, I see what appears to be fungal leaf damage, and intolerance of heat that doesn't look like "pooping". Let's call it an experiment, and I'll report back next year.

Really healthy watermelons can set on a full second family of fruits. I have had a couple cases where the later set was 99 pounds of melons....AND sometimes going hard to frost.

^^ 99 lb on how many vines, and is the second set a year-to-year consistent? Sometimes I get a second set after the main set -- occasionally they're delicious because the fruit set timing, growing conditions, and plant vigor are optimal, other times they're cr@p. It's just not something I count on up here in z5 -- I consider round 2 a bonus. That said, I did harvest my last (edible) melon of the season, a Crimson Sweet, on September 18th this year -- ground dried out and heated up fast this season, planted out before Memorial Day, stayed hot most of the summer, --> fantastic melon growing weather this year. Which is not the norm.

99 pounds is on one plant.

One year I had 234 pounds on one plant that was killed by frost.

Wow! What the heck kind of melon are you growing? Whatever it is I think I need to grow it.

I grew Moon and Stars for the first time this year and was keeping my fingers crossed it would be a good year for a long-season cultivar like this one. I got a 36-pounder off of one of them and was rather impressed with myself :0p Two fruits off of each of two plants, they were all in the 25-35# pound range.

Had a good crop of Crimson Sweet this year, but didn't weigh any of them.

OK, here’s some more info. I did an “Ask the Expert” question on this to our smart people at Texas A&M extension. Their answer is that yes, after expending a lot of energy on fruiting, cucurbits are very vulnerable to the punishing mid-summer temperatures we have. So there is some pooping-out threat. If you can nurse the plants through those temperatures (heavy mulch and shadecloth at least), they will continue to produce. So whether you can get season-long productivity depends on how punishing your mid-summer weather is. I have to suppose that Wayne in Central Indiana doesn’t have this problem. Now, I used medium mulch and some shadecloth but, as I said, I think I had other problems. Not rotating cucurbits is considered bad, fungus-wise, and I’ve violated that rule. I’m told that a second planting is hard, because getting plants to mature in that punishing heat is not easy.

It seems that in Texas, where marvelous cantaloupes are grown (e.g. Pecos) commercial growers seed once, in February or March, and then use plastic mulch and drip irrigation.

Sorry to resurrect this old and largely answered thread, but Texas melon growers might like some more info, which I now have. Turns out that, in the past, West Texas was the cantaloupe capital for Texas. As in "Pecos" cantaloupes. Their production has gone way down, and cantaloupe production in Texas has largely been taken over by Carrizo farms, which is none other than Dixondale, a revered name for onion growers all over the nation. That's what they do. Onions and cantaloupes! They are in the Valley, which is a climate more similar to Central Texas. Their cantaloupe harvest season is May through mid-July. Then they are DONE. So whether because of heat, or fungus, or just pooping out, commercially Central Texas is DONE with cantaloupes in mid-summer.

I'll make some extra effort next year to keep them going longer, but it may be a losing proposition. I'll need to think hard about what to put in that bed for the remainder of the summer. By November, I'm doing beets and onion transplants there. I have to assume that's what Dixondale/Carrizo does. When their cantaloupes are done, they let the field go fallow for a month, and then plant onion seed in October. Onions and cantaloupes. That's the ticket.