My first thought was bacterial wilt, but the pressure from cucumber beetles has been extremely low, and there are no strings of gummy sap when I cut one of the wilted vines.

Earlier, the vines would sometimes wilt a little in the afternoon sun. We've been having heat wave/drought here, but I think I've kept the melons watered. There's been some powdery mildew, but neem seems to have controlled it.

Starting to think it must be sudden wilt. If so, is this something that will spread to nearby cucurbits?

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.

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.

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'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)

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.

~emmers

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.

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.

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.]

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.