I've noticed this on a couple of my young melons - the stem is split open for a few inches near the base. It's not a borer, it's just a physical injury. It doesn't seem to bother the plants so far, the injury seems to heal after a while, but I wonder if I should do anything about it, like pull out these plants. Does it make them more susceptible to disease or pests?
Stems splitting on melons
If you have a limited number of melons, better leave them be.
I have had several melons that some insect cut the vine tips or the very center when they were small. Kind of unusual but they recover ok.
Any idea why they split like that?
Could it be the wind, blowing and twisting them around?
I don't know. Something did it though! I have wheat strips on the west side of my melons...potatoes on the south of one bed ...and it has really helped this year when I had more than one scary wind.
It would be nice to get some melons this year ...
Did you recently have an unusual amount of really "fast moving" rain? Sometimes an excess of water quickly, will cause things like this, and splitting of fruit.
Oh, yes. Wind and rain. Lots of rain.
No fruit yet to split, and most of the melons don't have the split stems. But more than one of them does.
I'm just guessing, of course, but that might be it. The water swells the stem faster than it can expand.
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