"JoeSpareBedroom" wrote in message
...
"Matthew Reed" nospam at zootal dot com nospam wrote in message
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I lost both of my watermelons one day apart. One day it was looking
healthy, the next day it fall over dead. The day after the second one did
the same thing. I suspect some sort of cutworm or something under the
surface of the soil, though I could not find anything wrong. Cukes and
squash are fine. I'm not going to bother replanting them, I put some cukes
and squash in their place. How can I prevent this in the future?


Did the leaves appear to have a dusty or cloudy deposit on them? There's a
fungal thing that catches up with the melon/cuke/squash plants in some
years, although it usually doesn't nail them until they've been in the
ground for a couple of months.

Not that I noticed. They in fact looked quite healthy and vigorous. The next
morning, dead plant.