Crop Profile for Pumpkin in Texas

Updated: June 2002

General Production Information

• Texas 4th leading state in pumpkin production: pumpkins generate 7.4 million in the Texas economy.
  
• Each year 5,000 to 8,000 acres are planted with yields of 20,000 to 33,000 pounds per acre.
  
• 90% are grown in High Plains (east of Lubbock, Texas).
  
• 1 - 3 lbs. of seed per acre are planted when soil temperature is 65 degrees. Planted on 80-inch wide beds, with various row patterns to facilitate irrigation and tractor passage. Grown with conservation tillage in sheat stubble.

Management:

• Nitrogen applied at 60 to 100 lb/A at planting. Phosphorus if needed.
  
• Vines to grow quickly and reduce weed problems later.
  
• Fields rotated out for 3 years to reduce pest problems.
  
• 50% is furrow irrigated & 50% is sprinkler irrigated.
  
• Beekeepers place 2 to 4 hives per acre to increase fruit set.
  
• Parasitic mites of honey bees have reduced natural pollinators.
  
• Must determine efficacies of fungicides & insecticides within 72 hours.

Harvest:

• Starts in early September for roadside, grocery, and chain store markets.
  
• 80% are harvested in a three-week window for seasonal fall sales.
  
• Over 95% for ornamental/seasonal novelty use.

Varieties and Production:

Production Areas

Cultural Practices

Assessment of Field Worker Tasks in Pumpkin

Production: Pumpkin production is mechanized except for scouting, light hoeing, & harvesting.

Insect Pests

General Insect Control Strategies

• Fields rotated to reduce overwintering insects, but pests migrate in from other crops.
  
• 80% of the pumpkin fields are scouted before treatment: by private scouts (25%), applicators (15%), or from Extension IPM advisories agents (40%).
  
• 90% of insecticides aerially applied since vines limit ground sprayers after 6 weeks.

Squash Bug (Key Pest)
A key pest in 100% of the fields; cause more losses than all other insects. Causes wilting of vines, reduced yields, poor quality, and plant death. Adults have a hard, impervious shell so growers must treat the nymphs. Scouts look for egg masses on undersides of leaves. Treated when most of the eggs have hatched and nymphs are still small. Careful scouting to determine squash bug present, followed by sequential treatments results in good control with the least chemicals. But squash bugs are hard to kill.

Spotted Cucumber Beetle (Occasional Pest)
Outbreaks occur one year out of four. Sprayed as needed, based on scouting. Adults feed on young pumpkin plants. Larvae feed on crop roots. Soil burial of previous crop helps destroy overwintering habitat of adult beetles.

Striped Cucumber Beetle (Occasional Pest)
Most damaging during hot, humid weathers after crop emerges. Vectors bacterial wilt. Destruction of crop debris helps prevent overwintering scouted and sprayed as needed.

Squash Vine Borer (Occasional Pest)
Borers overwinter in the soil, emerge in late spring, bore into stems, and tunneled vines die. Stalks destruction after harvest reduces infestations next year.

Diseases

General Disease Control Strategies

• Crop debris is disked into the soil after harvest to avoid harboring diseases. All farmers rotate pumpkin fields with agronomic crops for three to four years to reduce disease inoculum before planting pumpkins again.
  
• Protective fungicides are first applied when vines start to Arun@ (just prior to bloom) and applied sequentially after that.
  
• Treatment involves azoxystobin (Quadris), followed by trifloxystrobin (flint), and later myclobutanil (Nova), so fungicides are not repeated.
  
• Fungicides applied for one major foliar disease (dowery mildew or anthracnose) also control other diseases.
  
• 20% of first fungicide applications with ground equipment. Then 80% of the treatments are by aerial application since vines restrict ground equipment.

Powdery Mildew
The major disease problem in pumpkins causes most damage late in the season. Plants develop white, powdery spots. The fruit is not attacked directly, but become malformed or develop sun scald if the pumpkins lack leaf coverage. Yield losses of 30% or more may occur in untreated fields. Fungicides applied at 14 day intervals, usually in 1 to 4 applications, when vines begin to run (by mid August). Fungicides use varies depending on rainfall, cool nights, and morning dew. Complete fungicide coverage is essential. Fungicides are alternated within a field in resistance management plans.

Anthracnose
Appears on foliage as small yellow or reddish-brown and turns brown. Appears on fruit as circular, water-soaked, sunken lesions that vary in size with age. The disease is favored by warm, wet weather. Since anthracnose can live in or on seeds, growers plant disease-free seed or seed treated with a fungicide. Crop rotations significantly reduce anthracnose outbreaks. To reduce the spread growers try to avoid working when plant foliage is wet. Stalks and vines are destroyed after harvest.

Angular Leaf Spot
Angular leaf spot discolors the internal flesh of pumpkin and overwinters on seeds and diseased crop debris. Bacteria are spread by splashing rain, mechanical movements among wet vines, and is favored by warm, moist weather. Growers plant good quality seed and destroy crop debris in the fall after harvest and use a three to four year crop rotation to decrease survival of the angular leaf spot pathogen. Disease prevention is possible with repeated protective sprays.

Gummy Stem Blight
A seedborne fungus that invades at the crown of the pumpkin plant and progresses outward toward the veins. Favored by warm, wet weather and usually occurs in conjunction with other foliar diseases. Some pumpkin varieties have some tolerance, such as Howden types, Small Sugar, Spookie, and Thompson Halloween. Growers plant fungicide-treated seeds and avoid fields with a history of gummy stem blight. Rotations reduce build up of the pathogen. Complete fungicide coverage is essential.

Weeds

General control strategies

Pumpkin vines grow four to six inches a day once plants are established. Early weed control at seedling stage is very important to avoid reducing yields later. Vines spread rapidly. Weed development is reduced later as the crop shades soil. 100% of pumpkin acreage is cultivated for weeds, 1.5 times a year. Because of vine growth, pumpkins can only be cultivated for the few weeks (up to July 15) before runners fill the middle. Cultivation then prunes roots and vines and reduces yields. 70% to 100% of the pumpkin fields are hand-hoed to remove spotty infestations or escaped weeds.

Herbicide use: Wheat is harvested and weeds are killed and then pumpkins are planted. The crop is planted into a stale seed bed. Soil applied herbicides and tillage are still essential to control weeds.

Preplant: A few growers apply trifluralin in the winter. Glyphosate is applied in conservation tillage/wheat stubble program.

Preemergence: After the crop is planted, PE herbicides are used in conjunction with tillage to control weeds.

Before Vines Run: Some growers apply a herbicide to soil during the last tillage, since further cultivation is not possible. If weeds occur after tillage, over-the-top herbicide treatments are essential to avoid yield loss, reduction in punkin size, and so field hands can harvest the crop. Pumpkins are frequently planted into wheat stubble from the previous year (conservation tillage). Glyphosate is applied prior to planting to kill weeds. Use of Roundup Ready crops (Cotton mostly has reduced weed problems in pumpkins.

Table 2: Pesticide use in Texas Pumpkins

Contacts

Dr. David Bender,
Research Horticulturalist,
Texas A & M Research and Extension Center at Lubbock.
D-bender@tamu.edu

Dr. Harold Kaufman,
Extension Plant Pathologist,
Texas A & M Research and Extension Center at Lubbock.
h-kaufman@tamu.edu

Mr. Marty Baker,
Extension Horticulturalist,
Texas A & M Research and Extension Center at Overton.
m-baker@tamu.edu

Steven G. Davis,
Texas Cooperative Extention - IPM Agent.
Crosby, Texas.
S-davis@ag.tamu.edu

Several pumpkin producers and private crop advisors also provided information.

• Mr. Ron Graves, Grower, Floyd Co. Crosybton, Tx.
• Mr. Mitch Probasco, Grower, Floyd Co., Floydada, Tx.
• Mr. Hulen Carthel, Grower, Floyd Co.
  

 

References

1. Anon. 1999. Insect Pest Management for Commercial Vegetable Crops: Cucurbits. http://www.aces.uics.edu/~ipm/fruits/cucurbit

2. Anon. 1999. Pumpkin and Winter Squash. http://www.orst.edu/Dept/NWREC/pumpkin.html

3. Johnson, J.D. Easy Gardening. . . Disease Control. Texas Agricultural Extension Service. http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/extension/easygardening/disease/disease.html

4. Markle, G. M. , J. J. Baron, and B. A. Schneider. 1998. Food and Feed Crops of the United States. Monograph 496, APumpkin.@