Pumpkin we call a vegetable having a bright orange color. The plant is originally from South America, although in our country, depending on the cultivation conditions and variety, pumpkin fruits can reach 1 m in diameter, having a mass of more than 200 kilograms. The pulp and even pumpkin seeds are consumed as food, but the skin of a vegetable is ruthlessly thrown away, as it is very dense, rough and tasteless.
For the first time, pumpkins began to be consumed as early as five thousand years BC. The ancient Indian tribes first began to cultivate this plant, making oil from seeds and using the peel as a dish. On the territory of Russia and Ukraine, pumpkins are grown relatively recently, from the 16th century.
Culture grows well in subtropical and temperate climates. She adores light, warmth and good watering. The lack of moisture and even light frosts cause the plant to dry very quickly and may even die. Pumpkin seeds are sown in moist, heated at least to + 14 ° C soil. Sometimes the vegetable is planted in the open ground in the form of seedlings, but before that the seedlings must be hardened. 
Pumpkin loves organic fertilizers, while the introduction of chemical and mineral nutritional complexes before harvesting can greatly spoil its taste and aromatic palette. However, to get a rich and high-quality harvest of this vegetable, it is not enough to know about the peculiarities of its cultivation, it is necessary to have an idea about how to protect pumpkin from diseases and pests.
How to cope with pumpkin disease
The described plant has excellent immunity against phytoinfections and pests, but every gardener should know how to cure a pumpkin from various possible diseases. So, Powdery mildew, bacteriosis, root and white rot should be distinguished among the most dangerous diseases of pumpkin in the open field. The plant tolerates enough attacks and attacks of pests that are not capable of causing significant damage to the vegetable. However, the exception to the rule is the melon aphid and spider mite, often the main cause of plant death.
Important! If you notice signs of disease or traces of pests on bushes, experienced gardeners are advised to immediately begin treating the disease or destroying the parasites by all available means.Treatment of pumpkins for diseases and the destruction of parasites is best done with folk remedies and only in extreme cases use insecticides or other chemicals. Despite the fact that methods of pest control in a pumpkin can be very different, it will take time and you will regale yourself on the pulp of this vegetable, which means that you should minimize the use of any chemicals.
How to detect and cure bacteriosis
Bacteriosis is capable of causing great harm not only to the pumpkin, but also to other vegetables growing in your garden, therefore it must be recognized in a timely manner.
On infected vegetables, brown small sores are formed, which over time cause deformation of the fetus. With the defeat of pumpkin bacteriosis, in the morning the spots have a dark green color, and later become brown in color. After drying, the damaged areas fall through. The emergence of angular holes on the leaves between the veins on the infection of the plant with bacteriosis will also tell. The causative agent of bacteriosis is able to persist for a long time on seeds and plant residues of pumpkin.
Important! More actively, the disease begins to develop with sharp daily fluctuations in temperature and high humidity of air and soil.In order to get rid of the disease and prevent further spread of infection, it is recommended to remove all infected fruits and leaves. Before sowing, pumpkin seeds should be treated with a 0.02% zinc sulfate solution. First, the grains are immersed for a day in the solution, and then thoroughly dried, until the granular state. At the first signs of the disease, it is recommended to treat the plant with Bordeaux mixture, and for prophylactic purposes the vegetable is sprayed with 0.4% copper chloroxide or 1% solution of the same Bordeaux mixture.
What to do if a white bloom appears on the pumpkin, treatment of sclerotinia
If there is a white bloom on the pumpkin, then there is no need to guess for a long time, since your plant has been subjected to infection with white rot. First, white appears on the affected area, and later black fruit bodies, which are called sclerotia. The spread of infection contributes to lowering the temperature and increasing humidity. To eliminate this problem, the damaged areas are covered with lime-fluff or charcoal. The causative agent of this disease is a fungal infection. 
Infection affects all parts of the plant: fruits, leaves, whiskers and stems. The affected tissues become mucous, soften and become covered with a white mycelium. If a pumpkin infection occurs in the root zone, it dries out and dies very quickly. Particularly susceptible to infection are plants at the fruiting stage.
An excellent preventive measure in the fight against white rot is timely weeding and the destruction of weeds. Also, after harvesting, take care of timely removal of plant residues.
Important! An excellent remedy for damaging a culture with a fungal infection is the use of foliar supplements: 1 gram of zinc sulphate, 10 grams of urea and 2 grams of copper sulphate are diluted in 10 liters of water.In case of severe infection, it is recommended to remove all damaged leaves and treat the cutting sites with 0.5% solution of copper sulfate or sprinkle them with pounded charcoal.
How to save a pumpkin from mealy dew
If powdery mildew appeared on the pumpkin, then you can find out about infection by the formation of small rounded white spots on the leaves, stems or petioles of the culture. Over time, they increase in size and merge into a single conglomerate, while covering the entire sheet with a white mealy bloom. Damaged areas turn yellow and dry over time. Sporulation of the fungus leads to a decrease in the quality of the shoot and a decrease in its yield. Many gardeners are also concerned about the question: "Why does the pumpkin turn yellow when infected with powdery mildew?". Everything is very simple: with this disease, the processes of photosynthesis are disturbed inside the plant, which leads to the appearance of yellowness and gradual drying of the vegetable. The causative agent is a fungus, which with appetite sucks out all useful substances from the culture. On the affected leaves, the formation of cystocarpia (fruiting body) occurs, which contributes to the further spread of infection. 
Important! To prevent the rapid development of the disease, after harvesting it is necessary to immediately remove all plant residues from the beds.At the first signs of damage to plants with powdery mildew, they are treated with a 70% solution of colloidal sulfur, sodium phosphate disubstituted and 10% isophene solution. In case of focal lesions, all damaged leaves are removed, and the cut sites are treated with ground sulphate or sprayed with extract mullein.
How to cure root rot
The causative agent of this infection is a fungus and upon infection of a vegetable with root rot on the pumpkin, characteristic constrictions appear. The affected stems and roots of the crop become brown and gradually soften, the plant stops growing, its lower leaves turn yellow. If you persistently ignore the problem, it can cause the complete destruction of the culture. The disease affects mainly weakened shoots that receive few nutrients, as well as those that are systematically subjected to sharp temperature changes or suffer from incorrect watering. 
When growing pumpkins, the main preventive measure in the fight against root rot is the timely removal of plant residues from the bed after harvest. Also prevent the development of infection will help:
- watering vegetables with warm water, the temperature of which reaches +20 ° ะก;
- the use of foliar supplements prepared at the rate of 10 grams of urea per 10 liters of water, with the addition of one gram of zinc sulfate and two grams of copper sulphate.
Ways to treat anthracnose
Although the pumpkin and is considered unpretentious plant anthracnose can cause significant harm to it. Medyanka (the second name for anthracnose) is a disease caused by a fungal infection. When a plant is damaged, large patches of gray-brown or yellowish color form on the leaves. Later, the damage appears on the stems and fruits. 
Did you know? When the air humidity increases, pink or yellow-red concentric seals form on the damaged areas of the culture.To prevent infection, folded pumpkin is treated with sulfur powder. Infected fruits are sprayed with a 1% solution of Bordeaux mixture or 90% solution of copper oxychloride. When harvesting, you must be very careful not to injure the vegetables, because the spores of fungi easily penetrate the damaged areas.
What to do if the pumpkin fell ill with a yellow mosaic
Yellow mosaic - a viral infection. The first signs of the disease can be seen even on young shoots. It is manifested by wrinkling, mosaic and chlorotic leaves. Later, the leaf plate of the affected shoots bends inward, and over time the growth of the entire plant slows down. In the affected culture, the immunity begins to fall rapidly, and therefore there is a rapid accession of a secondary infection, which leads to its rapid death. 
Important! To prevent plant infection with yellow mosaic, before sowing pumpkin seeds they are treated with a weak solution of potassium permanganate.If the infection of the plant occurred at the stage of vegetation, then the seedlings are treated with the solution "Pharmaiod 3". In addition, due to the high contagiousness of all affected plants, it is recommended to remove from the garden, because otherwise the infection will spread quickly throughout the site. To protect healthy crops, it is recommended to apply reflective mulch, as well as systematically spraying the area with mineral oils.
How to deal with pumpkin pests
Measures to combat diseases and pests of pumpkins are quite diverse and when choosing a method, you must be very careful not to cause even more damage to the plant. In our country, every garden owner considers it a matter of honor to grow at least a few pumpkin bushes on his plot, which means that the name of its pests must be known to all growers. It is good if everything goes as it should, but it often happens that the leaves of the crop suddenly begin to shrink, wilt, curl and turn yellow, and in order to properly assist the plant it is necessary to "know the enemy by sight".
Spider mite on the pumpkin
Strong and undemanding pumpkin, often suffers from spider mites, which is its worst enemy. Without help, she will not be able to resist the pest for a long time, which means that as soon as you notice tiny light yellow dots on the underside of the leaves of a pumpkin, you must immediately start fighting with the pest. When deciding to use chemical agents to kill spider mites, remember that the treatment of the plant should be carried out no later than three weeks before harvest.
Important! To combat the parasite, experienced gardeners recommend spraying the plants with an infusion of onion peel (prepared on the basis of 200 grams of husk per 10 liters of water).Plants in the vegetation stage should be treated with chloroethanol or Celtan.
How to deal with germ fly
If a pumpkin grows on your garden, it is quite possible that a sprout fly will soon appear - a pest that is dangerous to all melons and gourds. To protect a plant, you must not only know how the insect looks, but also have information about how to destroy it. This insect has a small, from 5 to 7 millimeters, gray body, and there is a dark longitudinal line on the fly's abdomen. The larva of the pest is white, reaches 7 millimeters in length and is slightly narrowed in front.
The pupae of the fly overwinter in the ground on crops of grain crops or vegetable crops, and fly out in May, laying eggs under clumps of soil. Larvae emerge from eggs after ten days and damage swollen germinating seeds and pumpkin shoots. The pest bites into the replacement knee and penetrates the stalk, where it actively feeds and pupates after 16 days. After that, everything repeats again. In one season, from 2 to 3 generations of sprout flies develop.
A kind of prevention against the pest is the digging of the soil in the autumn with the introduction and careful sealing of manure. If a pest has been noticed on the site, then it is recommended to treat the soil with granulated insecticides before sowing seeds. (for example, such as Fentiuram), which will destroy the insect before the larva leaves the ground.
What is harmful gourd aphid and how to get rid of it
Gourd aphid is a tiny insect, dark green in color, which can be found on the underside of the leaves. In a plant that has been attacked by aphids, leaves begin to curl and fall off over time, and if time does not intervene in this process, the culture quickly dies. This insect feeds on the vital sap of the pumpkin, which leads to the cessation of the development and growth of the culture.
Timely sprout treatment with a soap solution (10 liters of water, 200 grams of soap) or decoction of wormwood will help save the pumpkin. Of chemical agents, seedling treatment with 10% solution of karbofos gives good results.
What to do if slugs appeared on the pumpkin
In late May, slugs may appear on the site. These pests are very fertile and incredibly voracious. Particularly favorable for their livelihood are rainy and cool days.
Did you know? Slugs eat away the ovary and young leaves of plants. During the day, the pest hides in a secluded corner from the light, and at night creeps out to eat. In order to collect slugs you need to lay wet rags, planks or cabbage leaves on a bed, and in the morning you will just need to raise traps and collect pests.To prevent the appearance of slugs, process the seedlings with tobacco dust, ash, lime or superphosphate. Excellent results gives a sprinkling of pumpkin infusion of garlic, wormwood, chamomile or tomato tops.
Fighting Wireworm on a Pumpkin
Wireworm called larvae click beetles. These pests love to feast on young shoots of pumpkin, especially preferring the roots of sprouts, which causes them to be infected with a fungal or bacterial infection. The insect has an elongated solid, resembling pieces of wire, which is why it actually received such a name.
To get rid of the pest you can build small lures. To do this, it is necessary to dig small pits on the site and put pieces of raw potatoes or beets into them, and after five days just collect the insects and destroy them.
If during the preparation of the soil you notice that there are too many pests and cannot be collected manually, you should treat the area with basudin.
Pumpkin is tasty, fragrant and healthy, but in order to be able to eat these sunny fruits all winter, in the summer we must organize for them a complete protection from diseases and pests.
