do you know anything about vine borers? it looks like my stem is rotting and i want to check for them. i think i might be in trouble!
Once the borers enter the stem there is little you can do. You can try chemical insecticide but it didn`t help mine. I lost almost all this year to borers. If you have time in your growing season, I would pull them up and treat the soil, water it in and replant.
One way to try and save your plants is to locate the borer's entrance site by looking for holes on the stems that have sawdust-like material around them and cut upward with a sharp knife, killing the borer inside. Then mound soil over the cut area, encouraging new root growth. Good luck!
