HelpfulGardener.com

Hello all...
This year I planted my first garden... tomatoes, cayenne peppers, pole beans, and cantaloupe. From the start everything just took off. All the plants grew quickly and looked incredibly healthy. But after they started producing veggies, everything except the peppers quickly died.
The beans died first. They went from robust deep green leaves to completely dead in a week. I removed them, dug out the soil they were in, and replaced it with Miracle Grow veggie soil. Now 60 days later the new plants are starting to make beans, and today the leaves turned pale and it looks like it's happening again.
The tomato plants were full of green tomatos. When they started turning red, the plants started dying. Now I'm trying to let as many as possible ripen before I pull out the plants.
And now the cantaloupe. I've harvested one melon, there are 4 more growing, and the plant suddenly looks awful.
I'm new at this... anyone have a suggestion?

Could be leaf blight? Or any number of other fungal or bacterical diseases. Take a leaf to your county extension office and get a diagnosis. You may be able to spray a preventative treatment.

I lost a number of plants this year myself. Between torrential rain storms and high temperatures, the climate has been brewing plant diseases. I haven't lost everything at once tho. That would be terribly discouraging.

Don't give up. Find out what's wrong and do what you can to control it.

Hi Hatrabbit,

Sounds more like some type of problem in the soil if all these different veggies are being effected the same way. When you pulled out the plants that died were the roots distorted at all? I'm thinking of some type of bacterial wilt, root rot or nematode.

Melons are part of the cucurbit family. Take a look at these possibilities for the melon to see what symptoms fit.

Fusarium wilt (cantalope)
https://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/r116101011.html

Monosporascus Root Rot
https://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/r116101211.html

Phytophthora Root Rot
https://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/r116100811.html

Sudden Wilt
https://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/r116100311.html

Verticillium Wilt
https://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/r116100111.html

Nematodes
https://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/r116200111.html


Beans

Charcoal Rot
https://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/r52100611.html

Fusarium Root Rot
https://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/r52100211.html

Fusarium Wilt (Blackeye Beans)
https://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/r52100511.html

Fusarium Wilt (Garbonzo Beans)
https://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/r52100411.html

Fusarium Yellows or Wilt (Common Beans)
https://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/r52101911.html

Nematodes
https://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/r52200111.html


Tomato

Alternaria Stem Canker
https://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/r783101311.html

Fusarium Crown and Root Rot (also effects melons and beans)
https://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/r783101211.html

Fusarium Wilt
https://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/r783101011.html

Phytophthora Root Rot
https://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/r783100511.html

Verticillium Wilt
https://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/r783100911.html

Nematodes
https://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/r783200111.html

I know it seems like alot to look through, but you probably see a pattern with the same diseases. If you go through the beans and think you have id'd it, then look at that same one for the other veggies.

Newt