PMN's Newest Focus: Cucurbits
Worldwide production of all four major cucurbits—cucumber, melon, squash, and watermelon—has more than doubled over the last 30 years. Cucurbits are gaining popularity with consumers and prominence as a plant-based solution to global issues such as hunger, malnutrition, vitamin A blindness, heart disease, and more. However, as the demand for cucurbits grows, so do the management challenges resulting from fungicide resistance and recurring epidemics of soilborne oomycetes and downy mildews that threaten production.
“Focus on Cucurbits” will be a collection of applied, multidisciplinary, online resources for practitioners and applied researchers. The cucurbits editorial board, led by Anthony Keinath, has planned a series of webcasts for 2020 that will address the biology, transmission, epidemiology, and management of whitefly-transmitted viruses; the identification, management, monitoring, and reporting of downy mildew; fungicide resistance in downy mildew; and integrated management options for Fusarium wilt of watermelon.
PMN is eager to add more webcasts to the “Focus on Cucurbits” collection to fulfill the educational needs of our growers. If you are a cucurbit researcher with a grant outreach component, you are invited to share your knowledge directly with growers and extension colleagues through “Focus on Cucurbits.” If you represent an organization interested in providing access to such knowledge, consider joining with PMN to sponsor the “Focus on Cucurbits” platform.
First Webcast Published!
See the first webcast in the series, "Fusarium Wilt of Watermelon," and watch for more webcasts in the coming weeks.
Learn More
For information about producing or sponsoring a “Focus on Cucurbits” webcast, send an email to
focuson@scisoc.org.
