cucurbit stem woes

[Jeff Thies]

The stem of one of my cucurbits (I thought it was a watermelon, but it is probably some other melon) has gotten flattened (the first few inches out of the ground) and a bit dried looking. Just after this is a node with many leaves (~8) branching out, they look very healthy.

I'd like to save/fix/help this as I've only got two. What might have caused that? What to do? I've pushed the node into the soil, should I cut off a leaf, or do something else.

Jeff

[Billy]

is encouraging.

Maybe wrap some sphagnum moss around damaged area and/or drip on some rooting compound. Very interesting question.

Reminds me of the time I was weeding around my climbing squash, only to suddenly see one of them looking back at me from a handful of weeds :O(