FIMBY: A squash plant has mosaic virus, and it’s not pretty
This is the latest installment in our weekly Food in My Back Yard series, focused on edible gardening.
It showed up seemingly overnight. One of three healthy zucchini plants on a hill was suddenly looking weird. The newer leaves were skinny, curled versions of their lusher colleagues.
And the newest green squash growing on the plant had a mottled, somewhat bumpy appearance.
Uh, oh, it looks like a case of mosaic virus.
Sure enough, after I checked sources on the UC IPM (integrated pest management) website, the symptoms confirmed the virus. The only possible action: Pull that plant now before the virus spreads to the others on the hill (a gamble, to be sure) and to the two hills of zucchini in the next raised bed over.
Mosaic viruses are fairly common problems for cucurbit plants: Squash, pumpkins, melons, watermelons and cucumbers can all suffer from them. In the case of squash mosaic virus, it is spread by cucumber beetles feeding on the plants or by infected seed. Other strains can be spread by aphids. The various viruses are not, apparently, limited to the plant they’re named for; the UC IPM site has a photo of a summer squash infected with watermelon mosaic virus.
My plant had early symptoms of whichever strain this was; a severe case would limit fruit production and stunt the plant, eventually killing it.
In a community garden like mine, viruses can spread fast and far. One year it seemed everyone growing summer squash was getting mottled, mishapen and weirdly colored squash. It’s particularly strange-looking on yellow squash, which develops blotchy green abstract art on the skin.
The squash still is edible, fortunately, but there is no cure for the virus.
With gloved hands, I carefully removed my plant, gently pulling out as much of the long root that I could, then bagged the plant and tossed it in the trash, not the green waste.
And believe me, I’m on close watch for symptoms in my other plants. I’m not ready to be done with zucchini just yet this summer.
