Cantaloupe with powdery mildew? Ok to eat?

Discussion in 'Fruit and Veg Gardening' started by AngieMillz, Aug 6, 2012.

  1. AngieMillz

    AngieMillz New Seed

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    OK so i have a large area of my cantaloupe infected with this powdery mildew on it and i didnt know what it was since this was my first EVER attempt at growing cantaloupe and so i didnt do anything to it until here recently its taken over a lot of my plant and some of the leaves have been turning yellow and looking bad so i went to walmart and got a fungicide and sprayed it all over today, but my question is... i already have 6 cantaloupes that are pretty large and almost ready to come off, are they going to be ok to eat? im kind of scared now bc of last year and all that listeria hype. HELP please! :(
     
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  3. rockhound

    rockhound In Flower

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    On the spray fungicide you used it will say "days to use before harvest" or something similar. Follow those instructions!
     
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  4. AngieMillz

    AngieMillz New Seed

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    Yea I did read it and it says you can spray it up to one day before you harvest it but I'm worried about the fact of the mildew.. Will that effect my cantaloupe?
     
  5. rockhound

    rockhound In Flower

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    Nope. If the cantaloupe is ripe, eat it. Plants don't get people diseases and vice/versa.
     



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  6. carolyn

    carolyn Strong Ash

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    Angie, Welcome to the Stew....You are safe to eat the cantaloupe from your garden. The lysteria came from DIRTY water and dirty equipment that the man had purchased and the equipment was already infected and hard to clean then the melons were sent through the dirty equipment and water and then it made everyone sick from that...not anything the plant itself had on it. Scrub your melons with dish soap and rinse well before you cut them...if you are worried about them.

    Are your melons good? it was a great year for them here. They were delicious!
     
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  7. AngieMillz

    AngieMillz New Seed

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    Ooo ok that's good to hear! I was really worried bc my family is really excited to eat fresh grow cantaloupes! I don't know if they r good yet, only two are just about ready to fall off n the rest are still growing but I keep finding more every couple days! So far there is 9 ranging in sizes. Also I have a carrot growing ( just one bc all the others didn't make it :( ) how long can I let itbin the ground? I'm pretty new at this gardening thing.. Last year I only grew bell peppers.
     
  8. mart

    mart Strong Ash

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    Yes your cantaloupes are safe. Thats one thing about growing your own produce, we don`t have to worry about listeria, e-coli, salmonella, ect. We know who touches our stuff, we do!
     
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  9. carolyn

    carolyn Strong Ash

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    Angie, glad to hear you are venturing out from just one plant :-D Carry on! The carrot has a "days to maturity" number on the packet, most likely. IF you know what kind you planted and when you planted it (keep a garden log...hint, hint) you can guess at when it would be big enough to pull, otherwise rub your finger around the shoulders of the carrot to see if it has any size to it yet. If not, cover it back up with the soil and check again in a week or two. Carrots are a kind of difficult crop for a lot of gardeners, don't be too disappointed if this isn't excellent. I have had great ones and flop crops. Had I had a flop crop first I would never try carrots again. My first crop was like eating candy in the early winter, straight from the garden.
     
  10. AngieMillz

    AngieMillz New Seed

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    haha thanks! i got a little eager early spring and planted just about everything under the sun but not a lot made it past the hardening off stage! Hm... i hope i still have th packet somewhere... and i didnt make a garden log. well u learn from mistakes! LOL i hope my carrot turns out good.. since i only have ONE haha! thanks for the encouragement! have you seen my pictures?! :) im pretty proud of my lil city garden!
     
  11. Tooty2shoes

    Tooty2shoes Hardy Maple

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    AngieMillz: I must have missed you when you join the Stew. So I will say welcome from Wis. Glad you found this great fun and helpful gardening community. As you are finding out. I hate powdery mildew. Our peas where starting to show signs of it so I yanked them all out as they were close to my melons and cucumber plants. I don't want it to spread to them. Like everyone said, it's ok to eat your melons. I would just wash them off really good before I cut into them.
    I have tried to plant carrots for 3yrs in a row. They always tasted bitter or went to seed on me. This year will be the last year I try and grow them if they don't turn out. It's really no big deal. I'll just to the farmer market and buy some. But only time will tell if they turned out this year or not. :stew1:
     
  12. AngieMillz

    AngieMillz New Seed

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    Hello tootie 2 shoes! Thank you for the welcoming! I am glad as well that i found this site, its been very helpful already!!
    Im not that big on carrots to begin with so i dont know why i planted them but im glad i dont have a whole lot bc they would probably end up going to waste in my house, i doubt ill plant them again though. I think next year id like to try blueberries and strawberries and maybe cabbage. Have you had any experience with those, and any tips for growing them? Ill always plant peppers though bc my family loves them, and lettuce too bc i go through a lot of salad myself(trying to loose some extra poundage).
     
  13. mart

    mart Strong Ash

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    Carrots are usually a fall crop and have a long growing season. Good thing is,, you can eat them at any stage of maturity. Blueberries are a bush crop so if you have a place in your landscape, they would be a good addition. Strawberries are something that have to be left in one spot and they multiply so figure a larger space than you have strawberry plants. Cabbage can be early spring or fall, you can pick either one. They don`t do really well in the hottest part of summer. Lettuce is a breeze. Can plant in the garden or pots, I recommend garden if you eat a lot of it. Try a five foot row to start, then about three weeks later, five more feet. Then you will have a continuous harvest as long as you keep it watered. When first five feet starts seeding, pull it up and use the second five, replant the first five. Are you confused enough ? LOL
     
  14. AngieMillz

    AngieMillz New Seed

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    thats all very good info! thanks mart ill keep that in my head for next year! aw crap i didnt know what was happening to my lettuce so i pulled it out and threw it away i didnt know it was seeding! o well, ill know next year. it make sense, i wish i had a bigger yard though! i have a small yard and a decent part is taken up by a pop up pool for my son. oo the sacrifices i make to make others happy lol!
     
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  15. mart

    mart Strong Ash

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    Many things, lettuce is one, do well in pots. Thats where I have mine till we get the garden ready for fall planting. Try a good sturdy shelf so you can plant up instead of out, and put stuff in pots.
    BTW did you get the message about treating the mildew? It was you wasn`t it ?
     
  16. AngieMillz

    AngieMillz New Seed

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    hm i should try to do some lettuce in pots.
    yes i got your message about the mildew, ive been treating it for a while now but im having another issue with it now.. i took pictures of it, my cantaloupe plant is dying off i think? i still have cantaloupe growing off of it but the leaves have been going yellow and dying off, its started by the ground and its working its way threw the plant, i dont know whats wrong with it.. ill upload the pictures on here.. let me see if i can do this right...
     

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