VEGETABLE GROWING IN NEW SOUTH WALES. 105 



Pumpkin-blossom Tip Rot. 



The cause of this disease is a fungus, which produces an appearance closely 

 resembling that caused by the black rot fungus of the tomato. The first 

 indication of an attack is the appearance of a dark colour near the tip of the 

 young pumpkin, where the withered blossom stilJ clings. This colouration 

 extends backwards, and long before it is ripe the fruit is a worthless rotten 

 mass. The colour of the rot, as it shows on the surface, varies according to 

 the plant attacked. Near the base of the withered blossom the colour is 

 black or dark -green, and velvety, and it is here that the surface of the fruit 

 first becomes shrivelled and wrinkled. A little farther from the tip of the 

 fruit the rot is dark-brown, and this shades off through li^ht-brown into the 

 healthy colour of the rind of the fruit. This description is of a half-rotten 

 squash about half-grown. When the destruction is more rapid, and the fruit 

 is killed while very young, the appearances are somewhat different. 



Fig. B. Fig. A. 



A Squish, showing effects of squash-blossom and squash-tip disease. 

 Fig. A shows a squash whose tip is discoloured and rotten on account of the attacks of the disease." 1 ^ 



Fig. B shows the same squash cut open, so as to show the progress of the disease in ths tissues 

 the young squash. The diseased tissue appears spongy and .darker coloured. 



V 



When split in halves, so as to show the changes in the flesh due to the 

 disease, all that portion of the fruit near the tip will be seen to be discoloured 

 and spongy ; where the outside is seen to be discoloured by the rot, it will be 

 noted that the flesh has changed to a brown or ochre colour. The mycelium, 

 or " roots " of the fungus, extends as far as the brown or ochre colouration, 

 and is found more particularly near the surface. 



Accompanying the dark-green velvety-appearance produced by the fungus 

 near the tip of the fruit, a snowy-white or pinkish growth is usually seen on 

 the surface of the rotten part. 



No remedies have, up to date, been devised for this disease. Dr. Cobb 

 suggested that as the disease manifests itself almost as soon as the blossom 

 has set, all such blossoms should be pinched and prevented from fruiting. 



