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.
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.
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