Topic: and wot's up with me butternut?

[bennettsleg]

The bottom 3 inches of the main stem has gone from round and green (like the rest of it) to flat, hard and white-ish. I gave it a prod (very technical) and there was no soggyness.  The rest of the plant looks very chirpy, bearing flowers/miniture fruit (one of which has gone blotchy, but the others are stonking).

I really need to get myself a pests & diseases hand book with pictures!

[supersprout]

Hard without a pic bennetsleg but if the plant is looking chirpy, the stalk may have thickened up and changed as a result of some damage - rocking in the wind? I've noticed this sometimes happens if I accidentally break a stalk :-[ and tie it up again - the stalk 'mends' itself and looks whitish and fibrous (hard to the prod test lol), but somehow keeps going. The stalks of squash do change themselves in marvellous ways e.g. thicken up for load-bearing when they get fruit, they are amazing animals :) That's the best I can think of ???

[sandersj89]

Funny, noticed it on a courgette today and never seen it before, I am wondering it is is wind damage caused by the plant rocking.

Jerry

[sandersj89]

- rocking in the wind?

Snap!!!

[moonbells]

Mine go like that after the outer cells on the stalk have been grazed by snails and slugs. The tricky bit is whether they manage to survive long enough to get that hard layer or if the pests eat the main water transport vessels through.

I've typically lost my spaghettis to this.

moonbells