Help, Sick Zucchini

Three days ago all of my zucchini plants looked fabulous. Then one day, one looked a little wilty. I thought perhaps it was dry so I gave it some water. That evening when it cooled down it perked back up. The next day it looked wilty-er. I checked. It wasn't dry. The ones beside it are totally fine. I carefully inspected it. No squash bugs, no fungus, no evidence of squash borers. Still, it looked like it could be squash borers.

SO, last night I went out in the dark and shown a flashlight through every single stem. If there's a borer in there, you'll see them and if you get on it early enough you can stab them with a toothpick and kill them, or else slit the stem and pluck them out before they kill the plant. Well I saw nothing. Every stem glowed hollow. There's no bore hole in the stalk, no plantdust at the base to indicate where one went in. Also the plant looked fine again last night.

This is how it looks now.

This is its next door neighbor.

Here's a row shot.


Any ideas other than borers, squash bugs, and being too dry? At first I thought maybe that plant just didn't like the heat but it's gotten progressively worse every day. The way it looks now I doubt it'll survive the week.

 

Question. Are they getting sick right after they bloom? If so you might have soil virus that gets them after wasps feed off blooms. The wasp sting the plant when blooming or shortly there after and the virus gets in thru the hole the sting leaves.

No know cure if this is the case

Suggestion email picts to county extension and ask them. You won't be the only person with this and they my lay have an answer

 

It wilts as soon as the sun comes out. Once the sun goes down, the leaves perk back up. Tho I'm not sure they'll perk back up tonight. :/

I haven't seen any wasps in a month. I hung up faux hornet nests and the wasps ran away.

 

Pull it now. I have no idea what the technical name is but you will lose the plant. The others look healthy and lets hope they did not catch it. There is no saving this plant. It is some sort of disease but when they get that extreme droop it is an illness not lack of water.

 

According to this it is a bore. Dispose of it now. I lost basically my whole squash crop.

Wilted Zucchini Plants | LadyMin's Garden

 

Mine do this every year out in the field plot.
I put up over 60 pounds so far, they have produced over a 100 lbs. Nematodes will do that to them, unfortunately there is really nothing you can do about it. Well there is but it involves baking your garden under plastic for a year and then they still migrate back, or plant Marigolds between every plant. Your better off growing them in raised beds.
In my raised beds I had to finally pull them up they got 5' tall and 7' around. Way too big for a raised bed the ones out in the 1/4 acre are doing the same thing now the heat has started hitting 90* and the Nematodes are awake.
This pics from a month ago It was bigger when I pulled it, leaves were 20" X 20" . You can kinda see the one on the left in the back it was bigger at this point.
If you pull one up look at the roots and if there are little knots all over them you can pretty much rule out any kind of fruiting vine plant, Tomato's, squash, Cucumbers.... I Can't tell from the pic. if your growing in the ground.You might have to use raised beds.

 

If it's bore worms get Neem oil and put it around the roots , the plant will absorb it and bugs wont eat it, You have to apply it every other week during Moth season. It worked on my sons tomato plants!
We have plenty of squash within about 90 days, for the whole year. Nematodes don't get active till it gets hot and then go dormant in the fall again. Start earlier next year if you can and try a fall crop. They can handle the cold down to about 40^, without a problem. Start them in August in 1 gallon pots you can still recover from this.

 

@Dunerunner I think you're right with the root rot. We've never grown anything in that area so it's been the dumping ground for the rabbit pens all winter long. I direct sowed the seeds into deep, thick rabbit crap and rotted hay. If anything, it stays too wet and with all the rain we've had ... My peppers are just now recovering from growing in a swamp and they're raised up a foot above the zucchini. I stuck my fingers in the dirt by the stems on the different plants, and that one is a thick, wet mud. The others have dried out a bit. I wonder if the soup it's in just rotted the roots off. I can feel some big ones coming off the sides but I don't feel that tangled web of capillary roots you usually find.

 

High nitrogen can burn roots, but rabbit droppings are supposed to be low enough in nitrogen to not do that. It may be that the combination of droppings and water are to acidic. Might want to check the PH.

 

I have christened it Lazarus and bet @Motomom34 $5 I can raise it from the dead.

 

It's zucchini .... there is soon many of them. Lol

 

They are a vine and will throw roots from the stem. Cover it with soil at a leaf juncture and that should re-root.The plant will also be higher out of the mud and you probably wont run into it again of its a flooding issue.You might want to do them all.

 

Might as well mail that $5 today because that plant is gone. I say yank it today. Have you really examined the base because you may find a small bore hole. I really do not believe it is a moisture issue because the plants on both sides are very hardy and the sick plants seems to be on even ground.

@Gopherman garden envy!!

 

You better get your $5 ready Moto. It's already turned around this morning.



Last night I trimmed off the stalks of leaves that would never recover so it wouldn't waste any more energy on them. The root system is shot, I unearthed it enough to see it has strong lateral roots, smooth and knot free. But there's no root hairs and the primary root that goes down turned to mush about 8 inches down. SO, I loosened up the soup it was growing in and then mounded it back up further on the stem. Like Gopherman said, it'll send out new lateral roots if dirt is on the stem. Tied some baling twine on to hold it up since it wants to flop over right now. This morning it's looking quite a bit happier. I actually expected it to go into shock after all my digging and fiddling but the remaining leaves are upright again.

My row has a bit of a hole in it now tho.

 

Don't plan your trip to Dairy Queen on my 5 bucks yet. The day is young...................

 

My ass is fat enough without the Texas stopsign assisting. I'll donate your easily taken sawbuck to the Monkey.

 

Yeah, what he said ^^^^^. Pull & burn. Also, @ditch witch if you going to try and save it, take that little zucchini off. That plant needs all the energy it can get.