Several possibilites come to mind in addition to SVB although they are very likely. Personally I have never had them bother my cukes or melons but I know others have reported it. Powdery mildew on melons and cukes is far more common for me.

But then you also don't give any info on your watering or feeding regimen so it is possible they were just nutrient starved or suffered from root rot due to over-watering. And of course there is always the possibility of some soil pathogen. Impossible to say.

But I would differ with you on the wilting is normal to conserve water position. Many things can cause plants to wilt so it isn't something to just be accepted as there is always a cause. It may be more common in some climates/environments but without including your location - we really need that info - I can't speculate on that.

Dave

thomas, Mature vine decline and wilting can be a great heartbreak....been there way too many times...dying down JUST before finishing those lovely melons.

@Dave you're right. It's been a long time since I've asked for help and I've forgotten to include zone details. :( I live in central ohio which if I remember correctly is zone 6a. As far as watering, I had three plants in the same area growing up the same trellis and don't feel like I over watered. I did not water the cukes and zukes as much and they suffered the same fate.

As far as wilting, we do not get a lot of rain. I frequently see (and have read) plants wilt in the hot afternoon heat only to bounce back and look 100% normal in the early evening. I've seen this even when the ground is moist and a mulch covers the soil to retain moisture.

The plants were really thriving before the wilt came on. I was ecstatic with how well they were doing. One thing I"m hoping might have been the cause was the actual soil. Could a fungus or something in the soil have caused the wilt? The soil in both beds came from the same source.

A

@wayne yes it is discouraging. When I lost the mellons and then the cukes and zukes, I really felt defeat and gave up on the garden after putting so much effort into it. Having the broccoli and cauliflower eaten literally behind my back a week or so before they were ready to harvest was not a good start to the garden. Then follow that up with the vine decline....

I'm determined this year not to surrender. And not to lose. LOL. But why couldn't whatever ate my broc and cauliflower have eaten it earlier when I could have still gotten more plants. LOL

FWIW, I think the condition is also known as "bacterial wilt". I believe there are insect vectors. Do I understand that, unless treated, the bacteria overwinters in the soil, or in the insect gut? What can be done to mitigate it? I believe the test for it is to cut the plant stem at the base and look for milky white ooze.

I looked up bacterial wilt and it clearly stated that it did not affect water mellon. I also had a watermellon wilt and die.

Good point about watermelon not being affected. I didn't know that. I thought it affected all cucurbits. Maybe not. It certainly sounds like it was ONE disease, as it happened to everyone pretty much simultaneously.

Dave, how do you "intervene" with bacterial wilt? My understanding is that there is no recourse. Nothing will fix it.

OK. I read up on root rot. It may be possible that I over watered. The bed was small. Literally, one square foot. Yes three different types of vines. It was a raised bed. The vines grew up a trellis. Imagine an old telephone booth with the door missing and that's what I built. With three plants being in the bed and all of them being mellon plants and mellons starting to form, I made sure to water the bed. It was raised. I figured the excess would run down through the bed. That with new soil and leaf mulch, who knows what might have been in the soil. I didn't water the cukes as much but a week or two later they had the same issue. I had peppers in the same bed and not one of the peppers suffered. I would hate to think that I caused the damage. If there is/was a fungus in the soil, is there anything I can do before planting to remove the fungus to reduce the odds of this reoccurring?

I also created a drip irrigation system, a bucket suspended over the bed, which would slowly drip water in the center of the bed in an attempt to keep a nice steady stream of water to the vines. More often than not, the holes got plugged and it didn't drip but that could have provided a perfect environment for the fungus.

Good catch. Interesting that the peppers were not affected. They are pretty intolerant of overwatering.

Given that the three plants had roots in very close proximity, it makes a lot of sense that when one got root rot, the others did as well. Of course, when things start to wilt, the reflexive action is to put on more water. So it spirals out of control pretty fast.

"Dave, how do you "intervene" with bacterial wilt? My understanding is that there is no recourse. Nothing will fix it."

Organic practices for managing bacterial wilt include growing resistant varieties, beetle patrol, row covers and hand pollination, yellow sticky traps, time delayed and staggered plantings, and foliar application of Surround (kaolin clay). Non-organic is beetle pesticides as needed.

1 sq. foot with all that growing in it???

Dave

But those are preventative measures. (And very good ones.) My understanding is that once bacterial wilt infects the plant, nothing can be done to save it. I think about intervention as response to having it.

I guess it is semantics but I think of intervention as intervening in the causes - in this case the beetles with row covers or Surround. But you are right, once you have it there is little you can do. Some have posted they can prolong the life of the plant to get some harvest by removing as much of the infected foliage as possible but I can't attest to that personally.

I tend toward ripping out and replacing infected plants rather than trying to salvage. But then I seldom grow just one or two of any plant either. Rather 5+ so if I lose one it is no big deal.

Dave

hmm my post didn't make it. So as much as I hope it wasn't me that caused the decline of my vines last year, I hope it was so that I don't have to worry about figuring out and controlling beetles or whatever the cause may be. I need to read up on water needs for melons. The peppers might not have been affected because I hit the cukes harder than the rest of the bed. Is there anything I can do to the soil to remove the fungus or will simply not over watering take care of the issue?

thomas, Take it from me who has experienced your problem so many times it was heartbreaking. You have soil fungal disease/diseases. There IS NO easy answer. Long [5 year rotations] help.

I had some soil where melons had never been planted. At first it was giddy and wonderfully productive. I hit the well too many times and disease finally got so bad that nothing finished up...nothing!!!.

I had a new area down the fence row next...kinda heavy and dark silty loam. Wow! I raised a 22 pound crenshaw melon and a 16 pound melon...and oodles more of super delicious melons. The watermelons were fantastic in size and taste and flavor, and juiciness. For example, I had some large Raspa watermelons...30 plus pounds. One Orangeglo plant made a 35 pound first melon and 99 pounds on a second setting . Another Orangeglo produced 234 pounds on 1 plant. Another watermelon made 99 pounds on the second setting...and more great melons came out of that area.

The point I am making is that I had giddy success there, but guess what? Even though I moved the plants into new ground in that area, they got SICK by the 4th year and I had to abandon the area.