Courgette – cucumber Mosaic Virus

[jamesParticipant]

For the second year running my courgettes have been hit by CMV. This year I planted Defender which is meant to be virus resistant. All three plants rapidly succumbed. The surrounding Squashes are unaffected. .As far as I am aware this is not a problem others on my Nottingham allotment have had.
The plants are grown on different parts of the allotment each year. Soil preparation involves digging in well rotted cow manure to the planting hole.
Any advice would be welcome.

[charlesModerator]

James I would let the seed company know, it may be seed borne.
And save yourself the effort of digging in the manure, save worms and fungi too, use it as mulch.

[jamesParticipant]

Thanks Charles for your response. I was not expecting dodgy seed as the possible problem. I will contact Wallis Seeds. The quality of their seeds has always been very good. It will be interesting to hear what they have to say.

I take note of your comment about using my cow manure as a mulch. When I said it was well rotted it is not rotted enough to provide a crumbly mulch. Which leads me onto another question. I have a clamp of cow manure on my allotment.It is covered with black polythene. I wonder whether manure should be left open to the elements. The downside would be that the rain would leach out the nutrients.
Any views?

[charlesModerator]

Either option has worked for me, though when the manure is fully moist, and a cover put over, it decomposes a little more quickly, and right to the surface, instead of a dry layer on top.

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