Sugar Baby watermelon disease (I think)

[Kylemay]

Been growing watermelons indoors now for almost 90 days. My vines are over 8’ long and they are starting to produce flowers like crazy, male and females. The females do not open (blossom) yet the males do constantly. New growth is awesome but older leaves curl, turn yellow and brown and die off. I have some pictures I’ll post that I think is mildew or something. Almost all of my plants (I have 6 of them) growing are all losing their older leafs. Is it normal for the plant to lose its oldest leafs or am I fighting a mildew here. See pictures.

Lots of air circulation, good humidity, 12 and 12 light schedule, lots of irrigation. Good fertilizer and watering schedule. One of the pictures is new growth, any new growth Is doing amazing some of the leafs are easily 8 inches long and 6-8” wide.

 

[DirtMechanic]

2 points but nothing authoritative. 1 is that is maybe the fastest growing plant I have ever put in the ground, so early death follows the speed of growth. 2 is the usual about heavy vegetative growth but no fruit means you are over N and imbalanced somehow. Watch out for proteins, because as you focus on what they offer, they are also 15%-20% or so N and can inflate the basic fertilizing regime.

The only thing I could offer beyond that is that in such an enclosed space without hepa filtration in the humidity the mold spores will take hold. You can fight them back, but probably not purify the area this grow. A variety of antifungal regimes exist, but it kinda depends on your water system. If you are not reusing water a quick fix is a couple tablespoons of betadine in a gallon of water. H202, Acids like aspirin, the copper based fungicides, neem oil etc are all valid and mild as well.

The thing is though that you may have an insect problem like spider mites. I see webbing and stuff in your pictures but they are not real clear on my phone. @Chuck may be a better resource on bugs if that is the case.

 

[Chuck]

From what I can see I don't think it is a fungal problem although one cannot rule it out. I think it is insects, some type of mite and not necessarily spider mites. What I would do is spray the entire plant with Neem Oil. It is a fungicide, miticide and insecticide all in one organic product. Get a magnifying glass and look at the leaves closely. You should be able to tell what is happening.