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Has anyone seen anything like the hairy fungus(mold) shown below?

I recently noticed it growing on some of my squash plants. They were doing great until this appeared and now it seems to be killing off newly formed squash and anything it touches. I was wondering if anyone has come across this before and might know of a fix. It seems to be spreading in my garden and it's now found in my pumpkin patch. Here are some pictures:

[img]https://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n289/phillib5/squash_fungus1.jpg[/img]
[img]https://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n289/phillib5/squash_fungus2.jpg[/img]
[img]https://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n289/phillib5/squash_fungus3.jpg[/img]
[img]https://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n289/phillib5/squash_fungus4.jpg[/img]
[img]https://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n289/phillib5/squash_fungus5.jpg[/img]

Here's a bucket full of it that I cut off. It seems to really go after the flowers and squash, making the flower die off and the attached stems soft and squishy:

[img]https://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n289/phillib5/squash_fungus6.jpg[/img]

The fungus most likely came from the soil, I usually don't have that problem until the fall. Anyway, my suggestion for the future is to grow your squash up a trellis of some sort such that the soil cannot splash onto the leaves.

For now, try diluting milk at about 2:1 and spray the plants with that. But, it does look like a bit of a lost cause. Best to catch this at the start.

I've seen this on my squash and on the blossums of okra -- which aren't touching the ground. On the okra, I've been able to pull the fuzzy sleeve of the rotting blossum off and the pod underneath develops normally. I've done the same with the squash, pulling off the rotting blossum, removing any stems or leaves with fuzz on them and still gotten a good yield from the plants.

I have no idea what it is but I'm pretty sure it's the result of the high heat and humidity in my area. It is especially prevalent after an overnight rain storm.

Perhaps someone else can give us a name and a treatment for this yucky black fuzz.

I think it's downy mildew. It seems to show up differently in different plants. In peas the mold is brown.
https://www.hort.uconn.edu/Ipm/greenhs/htms/downymlgh.htm

Here's the peas.
https://www.inra.fr/hyp3/images/6034423.jpg
https://www.inra.fr/hyp3/images/6034427.jpg

Newt

Following up on the mold problem, my uncle said he was having the same problem with his squash and he gave me sulfur to spray on the plants. I made sure to spray on and underneath the leaves. I will let everyone know how that works out for me this week. He also advised to only water the plants at the base as opposed to spraying on the leaves.

This fungus looks a bit different than that mold found on the images of the peas. It seems to mainly only affect the flowers. They get black and hairy and then fall off. If they land on a stem, it can deteriorate the whole stem. Also, if the flower has a young fruit on it, the mold will wreck the fruit as well.

Removing any mold that I come across works well but is difficult to keep up with. Especially with a pumpkin patch.

Phillib, you prompted me to keep searching. Don't know why I didn't think of it before but I searched with the term:
mold + squash flower
and I think I've found it. Scroll down to the bottom of the page here and look under 'Cucurbit Diseases, Nematodes, and Their Control' for 'Choanephora Wet Rot'. There's even a good picture.
https://www.aces.edu/pubs/docs/A/ANR-1014/

Newt

Thanks Newt. That is it exactly.