Look at the base of the plant for holes with a yellowish substance around them, that would be the dreaded squash vine borer. There are many threads here on SVBs. Otherwise, I would think something ate the roots, like a vole, but I have no experience (knocks wood) with those.

Hi Katie,

Welcome to the forum. I'm glad you're here.

Since you've been gardening for so long, I assume you are familiar with squash vine borers. Did you check the vines for them way down low right where the plant comes out of the ground? Lift the base of the vines a little bit and see if there is a small squash vine borer hole on a part of the vine that sits on the ground so the hole is hidden from you until you move the vine around a little bit. Watch for the sawdust-like orange frass (squash vine borer grub poop) that the SVBs produce as they tunnel through the plants' hollow vines. If there's absolutely no sign of squash vine borer activity, then let's move on to the next most likely scenario.

Were the plants perfectly healthy, and then they begin wilting in the heat of the day, but still recovering and perking up at night? Then, all of a sudden, they looked collapsed, wilted and dead? If so, that most likely is bacterial wilt, spread most often by spotted cucumber beetles and spotted cucumber beetles, who can fly in, leave the pathogen on your plants, and fly out without you ever seeing them. Being highly mobile, they can sort of be hit-and-run pests. Let me find and link some info about it. After you read it and compare what we know about bacterial wilt to what you know about how your plants deteriorated and died, then let us know if this seems likely or if it doesn't. If it doesn't, we'll move on to the next possibility. How does that sound?

Dawn

Fact Sheet: Bacterial Wilt of Cucurbits

Katie, mine were doing great, and no bugs....until...the squash vine borer started decimating them. Like everyone said, look at the base, right where it comes out of the ground. The "frass" looks (to me) like it is rotten...I was holding off on the last couple of plants, but I'm getting ready to go out and pull them all. I never got a squash bug this year at all. Just the sneaky SVB.

UGH! I am currently at work but will be checking this out when I get home for sure! I have a greenhouse so I planted seed and raised them from babies. They were super healthy until they just flat collapsed. I'll let ya'll know!

It is rare to get your summer squash of any kind, except for the C. moschata types, through the summer without squash bugs of squash vine borers getting them. The only way to happily harvest squash most years is to fight a pitched battle to protect them from the pests. I have found that it is possible to defeat the squash bugs with daily scouting for, finding and destruction of them, but it is nearly impossible to defeat the SVBs unless you grow under row cover, grow under netting or grow C. moschata types instead of C. pepo and C. maxima. The fact that they were super healthy and collapsed is typical. The plants always look great until squash bugs and SVBs arrive. They apparently take great joy in destroying beautiful plantings.

I am seriously contemplating row covers next year and self-polinating! Hubby bought PVC to arch over our raised beds this year but we didn't end up doing it! Looks like my butternut might be ok?

Oh AmyinOwasso - that is great info...do you plant with seed? I'm guessing so since the link is to Johnnys!

Yes. It is seed. I wish I could find acorn squash that was parthenocarpic, but my plan is to put a bush acorn in the bed with Partenon and hand pollinate. Then maybe I will put Seminole pumpkin out by the fence again. I just dread the squash bug war.

Seminole is cucurbita-muschata (c-Muschata) and it will get squash bugs but it grows so fast that they don't normally kill it. It is resistant to SVB because of it's solid stems.

I've grown Seminole before. But it will not be in good soil (like last time) and while it produced, the squash bugs eventually won. We are too old for the constant battle!

Did you find evidence of borers?

AmyinOwasso I think so. I saw small holes but not the orange stuff ?

I can't tell from the pic, looks like your plants weren't real big, the grub may have wilted them before it pushed out much frass. I'm sorry, zuchinni is difficult in OK. I suspect every one here has had to deal with this at least once.

Yes the frass was there! After I pulled them out, I kind of ripped the stems apart at the bottom and saw it. Now I'm worried about my winter squash. I have butternut, spaghetti, canteloupe and watermelon vining and worried they will hit that as my last zucchini plant is now gone :(

Spaghetti is c. pepo. It is at risk. Butternut should be c. moschata. I don't think cantelope and watermelon are effected by SVBs, but squash bugs can bring disease to them.

Has anyone planted Tromboncino? It's moschata but a summer squash. Considering it for next year. Wondering how it tastes?

I grew it. Many people like it, but I found it bland. But then, zuchinni is bland and not my favorite either, so maybe I'm not the best one to discuss it. Picked young, I think it can sub for zucchini well.

Thanks Amy - I was planning on using it with my spiralizer in summer salads so it may be difficult with how curly it is. I ordered some partenon seeds and am going to take a risk and plant it with a row cover. With our long summers I think i'll get a crop! Appreciate all the info ladies!

Katie, if you grow it on a trellis they grow straight. They have a seed cavity in one end, like butternut. there were cucumbers on the other side and the one hanging there is pretty mature and would have had hard skin like winter squash.

I don't care much for Trombocino as there are other C. moschatas that have much better flavor and texture. We like these C. moschatas much, much more than Trombocino: Seminole, Seminole Larger Fruited, Musquee de Provence, Long Island Cheese, Sucrine du Berry, Tan Cheese Pumpkin, Tahitian Melon, Waltham Butternut, Burpee's Butterbush and Dickinson Pumpkin (the sole source of pretty much all canned pumpkin that is grown/canned/sold in the USA).

Thank for the info! I wil order some of those seeds next year!!!

Since Dawn didn't include these and I just got my order in, I'll link these Moschata summer squash. Dawn has grown these.

Thank you !

Amy, I can't believe I didn't include those. Thanks for listing them. I was just shaking my head and wondering if I posted the list in my sleep. I might have been.

No one in this family has slept well since the attack on the Dallas PD officers. It hits too close to home, and I am sure I'll be a "work widow" this week as Tim returns to work on Monday, and I'm sure his day off on Tuesday already is cancelled (by him voluntarily, if not by his boss). They always are exceptionally busy either (a) after a local cop dies and the family members are flying in or the deceased person's body is being flown out to return to his or her home town, or (b) when government officials are flying in. Tim and his SWAT team members will be exceptionally busy this week and it will be an 'all hands on deck' sort of week. He also is responsible for traffic planning and it takes a ton of extra time for him and his guy to plan/work with motorcade routing and such. They are extremely dedicated, but the enormous amount of time needed this week to support 5 police officer funerals will be beyond anything they've done since 9/11.

For anyone whose squash crop is dying because of squash bug-spread diseases or SVBs, there's still tons of time left for more squash. Plant more, and enjoy the harvest for many months yet. We haven't even had any squash bugs or SVBs here yet, so are getting ridiculous amounts of yellow squash. I am not complaining because it is rare to not be involved in a pitched battle with both SVBs and squash bugs in July, and I am going to enjoy it for as long as it lasts.

Dawn

Thanks for the summer recommends. I am ordering seeds to plant! Already ordered the partenon and will plant today. Dawn - I can only imagine what you're going thru. I was almost sick to my stomach Friday night going to dinner. I didn't even want to eat. It's so awful!

Kate, You know, we are hanging in there. I have watched all the aftermath of it on TV until I pretty much can't even watch it any more. My heart just really goes out to the families who never really expected that their loved ones wouldn't come home from work like they always had before.

I just got a text message from Tim about an hour ago telling me he is working tomorrow. Ha, ha, ha. Like I didn't see that coming.

I am going to pick the first lima beans this afternoon and cook some for dinner. I didn't have time to pick them this morning, but now that my peppers are processed, I can run back out into the sunshine and heat and pick them. At least we feel quite a bit cooler today than we were a week ago.

We're going to have some lima beans for dinner, along with a summer squash casserole using squash harvested yesterday and today, tomatoes and southern peas, all from our garden. Oh and I'll make some sort of meat dish for the guys, but I just might happily eat a big plate of veggies and corn bread and no meat. Who needs meat when you have a pile of gorgeous veggies from your garden?

This is what I love about summer. Harvesting the crops from the garden and then planning the meal. Oh, and then eating it! We are so spoiled by the food we're getting from the garden this year that it is ridiculous, and I am not complaining. I could eat the same veggies cooked the same way over and over every day for days on end, but Tim and Chris like a little more variety.

Dawn

I haven't found a vegetable yet I don't like. I'm with you. On nites my hub is gone, I just eat veggies. Sometimes roast a whole head of cauliflower rubbed with spices and eat that! He would think I'm crazy if I presented him that at dinner! Right now we have tons of onions and curly kale, tomatoes, and we are about to get hit with LOADS of peppers. We're harvesting about 3 cucumbers daily so I need to get busy with pickling. Sadly no squash! Wahhh!

I am SOOOO frustrated with bugs this year! After I posted this, I lost every single one of my Black Beauty zucchini plants. So I ordered the Moschata seeds and replanted and they are blooming but these gray squash bugs are all around the base of them and crawling over them I've spent an hour digging in the dirt and snipping them in half this morning including tiny babies running around. Will these ruin my new squash ? I planted Meot Jaeng I Ae and Early Bulam, Hybrid, (both a Korean Cucurbita moschata variety. I think next year I'm row covering and selt polinating. GRRR

The moschata's are pretty tough. Squash bugs spread disease. They are nearly impossible to kill. I guess they are sucking bugs, and will weaken plants that way as well. I am experimenting with cedar shaving mulch under my late started Seminole Pumpkin (moschata). I am almost afraid to say anything, because it will jinx it, but so far no squash bugs. This is the cedar bedding they sell for rabbits, etc. Don't use it with chickens. I had a zuchinni plant that WAS under cover, but they got to it. I killed what I found and removed the eggs and have not seen more. But it will be coming out from under cover soon. If you have too many to hand pick, get a shop vac or a hand vac and suck them up and then drown them in a bucket of soapy water. I remove eggs with duct tape. You can also usually grab groups of the little ones with duct tape, too.

The squash bugs can carry diseases even to the C. moschata types of squash. Most well-established C. moschata types can fight off the diseases. I think they do it mostly by just outgrowing the diseases since the C. moschata types are such rampant growers. The younger C. moschata plants may not be growing vigorously enough yet to outgrow any diseases the squash bugs might carry, so I'd try hard to find and kill all the squash bugs I could, and I'd do that daily for as long as it takes. That gives your plants the best possible chance of outgrowing and outlasting the squash bugs and the diseases they transmit.

I love the idea of duct tape! Thank you! I'm off to see if I can kill more!

Just a quick note on the Korean squash...I think they are OK when they are small and just picked but their shelf life seems very short to me. When I grow Zucchetta Tromboncino Rampicante, I can leave it on the counter several days before cooking and it is just fine. I also like the fact that it has such a long neck with no seeds in it and I like the taste of Zucchetta best.

I am growing two Korean types (Early Bulam and Avocado) this year. I have missed picking 3 of the Avocado ones and they became huge (volleyball size) and the rind became hard very quickly. They get ribbed and look very much like winter squash. but I don't know how they would taste. It beats not having any summer squash, but you need to pick it very frequently and quite small then use it quickly.

When I grow Zucchetta it never seems to matter if I leave it on the vine a few extra days. I'm afraid my chickens and ducks have eaten more of this years summer squash than we have. Actually Al likes the taste and is eating some of it right now, but as the gardener I will likely go back to Zucchetta next year.

My winter squash vines are still growing strong with some nearing maturity while it is still blooming and setting fruit. I need to have a look at it today and see if others need to be harvested. My total harvested is over 111 pounds and I haven't noted any pests at all and I use NO pesticides.

It's a good thing there are lots of squash types to choose from because we all have different taste buds. LOL

I may just try several varieties next year to see if one lives! LOL Also, I've been reading and many organic gardeners are using BTK and rubbing it on the stems. Also some are wrapping the stems with row cover strips to keep out the borers. Something to try. Obviously I am very disappointed to not get any zucchini this year! Wahhh!

This morning I had flowers all over my new Korean zucchini plants! After killing 8 millions squash bugs every morning, they seem to be gone. I might actually get a crop!

I have a tiny plant, don't know if it will make fruit. I just had to try.

Still no squash pests here either, Carol. It's been a great squash year thanks to the absence of pests.

Katie, I bet you will get a crop. Just be sure to harvest them early and often. I harvest the Korean squash even smaller than you're supposed to because I think they taste better as baby squash than as big monsters. In hot weather and with decent soil and moisture the squash can go from being too small to harvest to being monstrously big almost overnight.

The only real difference in winter squash and summer squash is a human-directed one----we choose/decide which varieties are to be summer squash by harvesting the fruit young, small and tender and we choose/decide which varieties are to be winter squash by harvesting the fruit old, larger, much more mature and with a hard rind that we cannot easily dent by pressing on it with a fingernail. The very young squash fruit of many so-called winter squash varieties make great summer squash if you harvest them from 2-5 days after they are pollinated. I harvest a lot of Seminole pumpkin (which, despite the name, is a winter squash and not a pumpkin) at the young stage to feed to the chickens on hot July and August days.

Between cucumbers, Armenian cucumbers, excess zuchinni, excess yellow summer squash and Seminole winter squash harvested young, our chickens get cool, moist garden treats on most all hot summer days. Every now and then I even give them a melon, although what usually happens is we get the melon and they get the melon rinds, whatever flesh clings to the rinds and the seeds.

And, to make your gardening life more complicated and confusing, I'll just add that all pumpkins are winter squash, but not all winter squash are pumpkins, However, we grow them all the same way, so any advice given for winter squash applies to pumpkins and vice versa since they are so closely related.

Dawn

That's terrific! Remember, the plants 'want' to bloom and set fruit----they have a biological imperative to do so. It is our job to just help them along however we can, notwithstanding the fact that sometimes Mother Nature and her minions make it very difficult!