Plant guide:ð Pumpkin
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Fungal
Anthracnose on Pumpkin Leaves and Fruit
Commonly affects: Cucurbita pepo, C. maxima, C. moschata (Pumpkin)
Small yellow-brown spots appear on leaves, expanding into larger dead patches that can cause leaves to tear and shred in wind. On fruit, sunken, dark, circular lesions develop, sometimes with a pink-orange spore mass visible in humid conditions.
Potential Causes
- 1Colletotrichum orbiculare fungus, spread by splashing water and surviving in plant debris
- 2Warm, wet weather with extended leaf and fruit surface wetness
- 3Reusing infected plant debris or growing in the same bed repeatedly without rotation
Solution Steps
- 1Remove and destroy affected leaves and fruit promptly rather than composting them.
- 2Water at the base only, avoiding any splash onto foliage or fruit.
- 3Apply a copper-based or chlorothalonil fungicide preventively if anthracnose has appeared in previous seasons.
- 4Rotate pumpkin and other cucurbits away from affected beds for 2-3 years.
Prevention Tip
Clear all plant debris from the bed at the end of the season â anthracnose survives readily in old vines and leaves, re-infecting the following year's crop.
