(Wasn't sure if this should go in the Fruits or the Veggies forum, but since the Fruits forum looks more like trees, thought I'd try here...)

So, my watermelon is going gangbusters, with tons of flowers and even some female flowers (gotta get out there with my Q-tip!), but now something is wrong with the leaves. Its the older leaves, mostly, but seems to be spreading. The vine is in an earthbox, trailing along the ground, but the affected leaves aren't in contact with the ground in any way.

Anyone have any ideas?

And the reverse of the same leaf...

Thanks for any help!

It looks like some kind of foliar fungus... Jill, here is a good website on watermelon diseases. You can click on photo gallery to see pics then the names of the diseases to see if it matches what you have. Reading some of the stuff doesn't look like they are all a death sentence to your plants, so hopefully you can figure out what it is.

http://aggie-horticulture.tamu...

Thanks bunches, Kelly--I'll go check it out! Hate to lose one of the things that has the potential to do well this year!

Jill, be sure to check out my cantaloupe over in the fruits forum...you'll be so proud of me. Kelly has been advising me.

Any update on the watermelons Jill?

Boo is a new melon mommy - lol.

I have eaten 2 whole watermelons all by myself this summer. I L O V E watermelon! Going to share photos of the babies in a second, Kelly!....

I love them too and wish I had the space to grow the big honkin' ones - lol. I grow the small ones - Sugar Baby and Mickey Lee!

I bought another watermelon (#3!!) tonight at the market. On sale for $2.98. YUMMY

Watermelon update--whatever the foliage problem is, it doesn't seem to be spreading so I'm just ignoring it. That plant is going crazy, with tendrils running all over the place--some I'm guessing are up to 15 feet long! At last count there were 6 melons set, and one of them is almost ready to pick! I'm taking my chances here--what I know to do is check for the curly little tendril at the stem end to turn brown--but this melon doesn't have that little tendril! Oh no... so I'm waiting for the bottom to go from green to ivory. Hopefully I won't overshoot...

Then I get to find out what kind it is--planted both red (Early Arizona) and yellow (a Tohono O'odham variety whose name I can't recall OTTOMH), but only one out of the four came up, and I lost the tag saying which it was. So, a mystery abounds. Hopefully I'll be back in a day or two with pictures of dessert--and maybe an invite for Boo to come on down!

I have my salt shaker in hand...

Did you eat it yet Jill?