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Extension > Garden > Diagnose a problem > What's wrong with my plant? > Vegetable > Winter Squash and Pumpkins > Fuzzy growth on fruit

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Winter Squash and Pumpkins > Fruit > Fuzzy growth on fruit

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  • Image: Anthracnose 1
  • Image: Anthracnose 2
  • Image: Anthracnose 2

Anthracnose
Colletotrichum obriculare

  • Circular sunken dark spots on fruit up to ½” across
  • Salmon colored spores form in the center of fruit spots when wet
  • Irregular brown leaf spots
  • Commonly appears mid to late season
  • More information on Anthracnose
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  • Image: White Mold 1
  • Image: White Mold 2
  • Image: White Mold 3

White Mold
Sclerotinia sclerotiorum

  • White cottony mold on squash
  • Small hard, black raisin like fungal structures embedded in cottony mold
  • Fruit becomes rotted and watery
  • Most common on pumpkin and some winter squash
  • More information on White Mold
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  • Image: Phytophthora Blight 1
  • Image: Phytophthora Blight 2
  • Image: Phytophthora Blight 3

Phytophthora Blight
Phytophthora capsici

  • Infected fruit are covered with white fungal growth
  • Infected fruit are soft, easily punctured and often collapse
  • Fruit develop soft, water-soaked lesions which expand to large sections of the fruit
  • Large irregular brown spots on leaves
  • Stem and leaf petiole lesions are light to dark brown, water soaked and irregular
  • The entire plant may collapse if root and crown rot occurs
  • More information on Phytophthora Blight
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  • Image: Choanephora Rot 1
  • Image: Choanephora Rot 2
  • Image: Choanephora Rot 3

Choanephora Rot
Choanephora cucurbitarum

  • Blossom end of squash is soft, rotted and covered in fluffy purplish black fungal growth
  • Flowers are covered with first white then purplish black fungal growth
  • Occurs after wet weather
  • Most common in squash
  • More information on Choanephora Rot

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