I was wondering if anyone can help me discover what is happening to my cantaloupe, zucchini, and squash plants this year. I had this same problem last year but I thought that is was caused by varying amounts of water due to the drought here. But when the problem came up again this year, I started scratching my head!

I planted my cantaloupe plants out about a month ago. They have grown great and are putting on all kinds of runners and blooms. Suddenly one of the plants entirely wilted. I have a thin layer of mulch around them and when I pulled this back I looked at the stem and noticed that it was really woody in texture and very pliable. Nothing had eaten it to my knowledge and it didn't really look like bugs or worms had gotten to it. So far, 2 plants out of 50 have done that. It really bothers me because I never know when another one will go. My yellow crookneck squash and my zucchini have also had this problem. My zucchini was producing perfectly until I went out one morning and saw half of them wilted.

I hope someone can help me out with this problem. Any suggestions about what causes it and what I can do about it? Thanks so much