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Permalink Reply by Kathy Davis Wright on July 3, 2011 at 8:55pm

This is my first time to reply to anybody.  I don't really know what I am doing. 

Bacterial wilt could be the cause.  Plants wilt and die rapidly without yellowing or having spots on the follage.  To help you see if this is Bacterial wilt, cut the plant off just above the soil line.  Peel back the epidermis and cortical tissue (bark).  The center of the stem (pith) will appear water soaked in ealy stages; later the pith will turn brown and sometimes be hollow.  If you cut a piece of the stem and put it in a clear container of water, a white milky looking ooze will stream out of the cut end. This is from the Alabama Cooperative Extension System ANR-479 The Alabama Vegetable Gardener.

 

I had squash vine beetles in the three plants I put out last year.  They looked so healthy.  I planted them and they looked great.  One day I went out and they were dried up and bent over.  My extension agent told me that they beetle eggs were already in the plant.  They survive in dead squash vines so destroying the vines and cleaning the site will keep them from being able to winterover at your site.

Permalink Reply by Kathy Davis Wright on July 3, 2011 at 8:57pm

I have had flower roots totally eaten by voles and moles.  I thought it was deer, but the wrong end was gone.