"Matthew Reed" nospam at zootal dot com nospam wrote in message
...
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?
My guess is gophers. Take a metal rod and probe the ground 360 degrees
around where the plant and see if you come upon any tunnels. Just had a
similar experience with my Japanese pumpkin last week. Plant was doing
great one day, then looked absolutely wilted the next. Probed and found
tunnel. Flooded area repeatedly, breaking down any tunnels found.

Affected plant when removed from the ground had only one stringly root
hair - rest of root completely gone. Placed plant in a pot of pure home
created compost, dampened down. Today, plant is doing well and looks about
to put out new leaf. When it indeed does, I'll transplant it back.

And if you indeed do find tunnels with your metal probe, check with local
nursery or internet on controlling/eliminating these animals.