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howelbama

Help with watermelons

howelbama
12 years ago

Hi,

I am running into some trouble with my container watermelons.

I have a few crimson sweet plants and cantaloupe plants in a 12 gallon pot and another 12 gallon pot with a couple of jubilee melon plants. They both have an SFG type Mel's mix in them, very well draining due to added perlite in the mix.

I have several nicely sized fruits set and growing.

The foliage has developed spotting and yellowing from the older leaves out. The spots are small and numerous dark purple to black in color only affecting the leaf surface, the damage/spots do not show through to the underside of the leaves. The leaves are also getting pale, the new growth is not as affected. Does the sound like fungal or nutrient? Root bound?

I feed with a three part grow micro bloom using tap water that is de chlorinated but not otherwise filtered. It has a ph of 8.2 w/o nutrients and mixes to 6.4 with the 3part fert. The containers drip fed the 8.2 water.

I am definitely guilty of overwatering, and it had been hard to keep the containers properly watered duet frequent spring/early summer rains. I may be guilty of over fertilizing, but I think the issue may be more of the watering issue and ph of the de chlorinated tap water I am using. Could the be a micro nutrient disorder? If so would the spots go all the watt through the leaf, since they don't, does that indicate fungal and or viral?

I am going to allow the containers dry more between waterings and would like to find a cost effective way to lower my tap ph....

I will try to post some pics.

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