What are the diseases of bitter melon and how to treat them

When cultivating bitter melon, we often encounter various diseases. Today I will tell you how to prevent them:

Bitter melon white rot

Disease characteristics: The whole plant wilts, the stem base is wrapped with white mycelium or rapeseed-shaped dark brown sclerotia, and the affected part turns brown and rots. A large number of white mycelium and dark brown sclerotia can be seen on the soil surface.

Disease pattern: The pathogen overwinters in the soil with mycelium and sclerotia along with diseased remains, spreads with irrigation water and rainwater, and invades through wounds to cause disease. After the disease occurs, the sclerotia spreads with the help of running water or climbs with hyphae to contact neighboring plants to infect again and cause disease. Hot and humid weather is conducive to the disease. Continuous cropping, acidic soil, sandy loam with good permeability, and the application of uncomposted soil and miscellaneous fertilizers often cause severe disease.

Prevention and control methods: (1) Avoid continuous cropping in seriously diseased areas. (2) Check in time, remove and burn diseased plants immediately if found, and use 150 kg of mycorrhizal disinfectant diluted with water near the diseased holes to irrigate the roots. (3) Prevention is the priority, and comprehensive management is the key.

Bitter melon perforation disease

Disease characteristics: Mainly harms leaves. Leaf spots are nearly circular, yellow-brown to yellow-white or gray-white, with a horizontal diameter ranging from 1 mm to several millimeters, and small black spots as big as a needle appear on the spot surface. In the later stage, the lesion tissue is easy to fall off and form leaf perforations, and necrotic tissue remains around the perforated spots. This disease is quite similar to Cercospora leaf spot, but the difference is that the symptoms of this disease are small black spots instead of mold-like substances, and they are mostly perforated spots.

Disease pattern: The pathogen survives the winter in the form of mycelium and conidiophores left in the soil with diseased remains, using conidia as the primary and secondary inoculum, and spreads and infects with the help of rain splashing. Warm and humid weather is conducive to the disease.

Prevention and control methods: (1) Choose disease-resistant varieties.

(2) Combined with comprehensive prevention and control of anthrax.

(3) Spray with 50% Anrique 800 times diluted.

Powdery mildew of bitter melon

Powdery mildew of bitter melon is a fungal disease that occurs on the leaves, petioles and stems of the plant.

Prevention and control methods: 1. First, implement crop rotation. Do not plant with cucurbitaceae vegetables. Before sowing, apply a new lipid film on the ground to prevent soil compaction, isolate pests and diseases, and increase the emergence rate. 2. Seed treatment. Soak the seeds in warm water at about 55°C before sowing, and continue to soak for 12 hours after natural cooling. Mix the seeds with a new lipid film before sowing to repel underground pests and diseases, strengthen respiration intensity, and increase seed germination rate. 3. Strengthen cultivation and fertilizer and water management, apply nitrogen fertilizer appropriately, and reduce field humidity. Pay attention to clearing ditches and draining water on rainy days to prevent waterlogging. Spray Zhuang Guadiling before flowering, during the young fruit stage, and during the fruit expansion stage to thicken the melon stem, strengthen nutrient delivery, enhance plant resistance, promote rapid development of the melon body, and make the melon beautiful, juicy and delicious. 4. Chemical control. When the central diseased plant is found, spray the agent and new lipid film in time to form a protective film to isolate the pathogenic bacteria and prevent the bacteria from spreading and infecting again by wind and rain.