pictures would help. is there streaking in the stem yellow or brown when cut length wise? is the plant still healthy but suddenly wilts?

The vines are healthy-looking green when split open, moist but no gummy sap. I see no leisions or other obvious signs of a problem besides the wilting. The plants seem to wilt from the tip [like bacterial wilt] one or two branches of the vine at first. The other end of the row seems worse off than this one.

There used to be a wilt that was called sudden wilt. Now it is called Mature Vine Decline. Purdue says that they cannot pin it down to anyone disease.

Now the wilt I am talking about hits the whole area of plants in ONE day. It is not the wilting of one vine here and there, but, well, the whole patch in unison. I first experienced the problem in 2005. On August 5th my patch of watermelons looked beautiful. The next day the lower 2/3rds of the patch were wilted in the heat of the day. I thought they needed water...wrong. Each day it grew more wilty on the affected [plants until they died or languished for a while and then perhaps took off again healthily, but too late for production.

The trouble I experienced is soil borne and you need to find brand new areas that are not contaminated.

Yeah, I find that a successful canteloupe/muskmelon patch is difficult to grow. They always seem to start out great, but then something always happens. I try to stay on top of the bug/disease thing with the typical sprays. Usually I just hope the patch doesn't fall apart before the melons are ripe. I have 2 containers with muskmelons in them this year....they haven't died 'yet.'

It's vexing. I finally get a year with the cuc beetles gone, so I figure for ONCE the melons won't get the wilt. Now this.

It'll be 3 weeks before those melons are ripe, if the vines don't die altogether. But exposed to the sun like that, they may not last that long.

looks like a type of dampening off. can you pull up one of the dead plants and take a picture of the roots? here is a link that may help you.

Here is a link that might be useful: sudden decline

This year my cantaloupes are in a new location. They are beautiful and I picked 3 today...a Diplomat, a Sugar Queen, and a Goddess. I was waiting on the Goddess to slip and it never did and began to spoil from insect bites. I thought it ought to slip...mistake. The Sugar Queen rolled right off like they always do....no guessing there. The Diplomat is cranky too on slipping. I have a large Burpee early Crenshaw that has turned bright yellow...my very favorite.

In this new location for cantaloupes it is so easy to raise loupes to ripe perfection. In diseased areas it is so frustrating to get them to finish that last 2 weeks without falling away somewhat. It takes a fully healthy melon vine to get that delicious flavor and texture.

I had the SAME thing happen to one of my watermellon, and now I've lost my carving pumpkin too. I have been watering an inch per week, and then 2 days later, watermelon death, in the same way you describe. I had 3 medium sized melons growing, and then it wilted. My pumpkin just yellowed and died, and I haven't a clue. I've kept up my spraying regimen, along with a fungicide, and I can't seem to keep them alive!!!

I'm with you ltilton, My melon patch is a god awful wasteland for the bugs. I watch them put one claw on my plants and recoil from the chemical ali barrier on them. And still, melon death.

My cukes are ok though. Dafuq would cause watermelon and pumpkin death, but not touch a cuke? (the cukes I have kept the chemical ali stuff to a minimum, since I'm, ya know, eating them..still fungiciding them though)

Steven - that phytophthora looks like a good candidate. But these melons don't have wet feet. My usual problem here is bad drainage, not drought, so they're planted on raised ridges.

I pulled a bit on one of the roots and inspected them, but they seem healthy, not inclined to pull out of the ground.

Also, the wilt starts with the vine tips, not the crown.

I guess it won't be long before I know if it's really sudden wilt. Just wondering if it's going to spread to the other melons. Since there seems to be no way to stop it.

i read an article about sudden wilt and the silverfly was causing it to suddenly wilt. i do not know if that is your case. just throwing it out there. it was causing the inside of the rinds to turn colors.

I suppose the fly could be a vector?

I did have SVB in my melons last year, which caused a particular vine to wilt while leaving others healthy.

~emmers

It's mysterious. I gave the patch a good watering, after which the wilting vine/hill is really conspicuous among the rest. This says to me it's probably not sudden wilt or the whole row would be going by now.

I'm about to think it's bacterial, gummy sap or no gummy sap, beetles or no beetles. At any rate, nothing to be done about it but pull the dying plant and shade the fruits like the Japanese growers do, with little melon hats.

gummy stem picture

i had a problem like this once. dog walked across it.

I consider this sort of thing a case for my neo-stoicism, which divides life into:

A: Things you can't do anything about

B: Things you could have done something about, but it's too late now

C: Things you can actually do something about

I'm thinking the melons fall into A or B.

Lois, I vote for fusarium wilt on your melon.

Wayne - I went out and checked the bad vine, but there was no discoloration of the stem tissue, as I think Fusarium is supposed to cause.

The good thing would be that the Charentais are resistant to F wilt. Of course, this variety of Galia is supposed to be, too.

Bad thing would be, nothing to do about it now.

Charentais still looking good. Rest of Galias holding on. [I only grow the Galias to have melons before the Charentais are ripe.]

Here's an interesting chart. It shows how many problems are out there for melons and how few resistant varieties. No resistance to bacterial wilt.

The chart also lists Savor as resistant to powdery mildew, which is all over my row, while much less on the other cucurbits including the Early Gala with the wilt problem.

Here is a link that might be useful: Resistant varieties of melons

mine is this big as softball size. this was taken a few days ago (May 24, 2020) before the leaves were died. Should I continue to water it? So yesterday and today i haven't water it yet. or should I wait until it ripe? at least about a few more weeks. I grow this melon seed that I bought from the grocery store. it is about 20 days old after the flower set fruit. Please advice.