White/disintigrating stems

[Ace]

Hi all

I have a load of small veg plants in small pots that I potted on from seedlings a while ago. They've been sitting on my patio table in full sun and rain.

They are a mixture of Lemon Cucumber plants and Summer Squash plants and they've all be growing just fine so far.

Then yesterday we noticed that the plant stems at the botton are all now starting to get pale and white on one side. They almost look scratched. All on the same side (facing west). In 3 or 4 cases the stems have actually part disappeared on the side so the result is like a tube with one side completely open. i.e. instead of there being a whole thick stem, it's like a piece of round vertical guttering, really odd.

I can't believe something has nibbled it's way up these plants one by one all on the same side. Can this be some kind of sun burn or wind burn damage?

[Lesley Jay]

Hi Ace, you can get vertical splits on the stems of the cucurbit family especially if the stems have grown too long and it can be caused by wind damage as you said.