Zucchini Sudden Death

[xlr82v2]

Well, it happened last year to 1 plant, and now it has happened to 2 of our plants this year...

The Zukes look beautiful and healthy, and then all of a sudden they will wilt down and die... all within 24 hours.

Has this happened to anybody else? It has to be something getting into the roots... some type of worm or mite or something...

Can anything be done to prevent/stop this from happening?

 

[tomd999]

Hiya,

Give this a read, might be what you have as you said it came back for the second year.

Tom

Abstract: Phytophthora Blight of Cucurbits

 

[Tractorbeam]

Do you see what looks like fine sawdust near the base of the plant?

Squash vine borers are a very common pest. They get into the stem and end up killing the plant while they eat the center of the stems.

Rotating the area where you plant squash may help, next year.

 

[Chuck52]

Do any of those biological controls, like bT or something control squash borers and stink bugs and the like? I'm not an organic gardener, but I like the i8dea of "infecting" my garden with something that kills those buggers.

Chuck

 

[Egon]

From my view point it is a good detriment of the Zucchini give away program!

 

[randy41]

i've heard that borers can be controlled by BT but you would have to spray early and often. i have no personal experience with doing that. the best thing you can do is rotate your crops through your garden. the second best thing to do is to plant enough so that if lose some you still got others.

 

[ore540]

Could be gophers. Went out the other morning and one of our winter squash was wilted. Nice new gopher mound nearby. Trapped the devil and haven't had any other problems.

Interesting that the trap was out of the ground and empty the next morning, just a little gopher hair on the wire. Something cleans them for me every once in a while. I'm pretty sure it's the neighborhood foxes or raccoons. Dogs haven't been able to get through the fence.

 

[xlr82v2]

Thanks for the info, guys. Just from what I can see, and what I've been able to glean off of the 'net, I think it is probably the Squash Vine Borers... that matches what I've seen in my garden the best.

Rotating the location didn't help... they were on the opposite end of the garden last year... nearly 100 feet away.

 

[dmccarty]

We watch a NC ag/garden show and the just talked about the borer. Basically spray but once they get in the plant is doomed. You might if you notice it in time, not sure how that would be, you could cut out the bug....

Seem like that would be hard to do.

The one suggestion that did seem worth while was that after the vines start spreading, dump dirt OVER portions of the vines. The dirt should cause that portion of the vine to root. If a borer does find a home hopefully the rooted portion of the vine will survive.

Later,
Dan

 

[xlr82v2]

Yeah, once the plant starts to droop, you can almost sit and watch it die... it is literally just hours from healthy to dead.

Did they say on that show what to spray with to best control the borers? Liquid Sevin, or malithion, or ???