[mollyblob]

My courgettes were going great guns... up until a few weeks ago.  I have three plants, each in their own (pretty big) pot.  I was so pleased when they started producing little courgettes, and was getting at least one courgette a day from them for  a few weeks.  One of them started getting a mottled yellow appearance on its leaves which quickly spread from a little spot to cover all of the leaves, then the whole plant seemed to shrivel. Any courgettes which grew started out fine, then turned black and hard and misshapen.  The stem looked kind of mouldy, and the whole thing was a lot les sturdy.

All depressing enough, but now it's happened to my other two plants.  One looks almost completely dead, and now the biggest one looks like it's succumbed... a little yellow spot appeared last week, and now all of the lower leaves are yellow.  today there was a mouldy courgette on the big plant. 

What is it?  Are they doomed?  I've been watering them lots via an upturned bottle sunk into the pot as i was told the stems don't like being wet, but it's been raining for a couple of weeks solid so they're pretty much soggy all the time at the moment.  Could that be it?

[JaK]

I wonder if they needed feeding? Once a week maybe?

[mollyblob]

I've been feeding them once a week with organic liquid feed stuff (following the instructions).  I'll be so disappointed if they die!

[Ice]

Is there any chance of a photo to help the diagnosis?

[mollyblob]

I don't have a camera I'm afraid. 

The leaves were dark green, lovely and healthy.  Each time, they've suddenly got an almost luminous yellow spot on one of the leaves, which spreads to a kind of mottled yellow appearance, then completely yellow.  At the same time, the stem has gone grey and when I touch a plant it all moves around, as though the stem is no longer firmly anchored in the ground.

[Ice]

The nearest I can find is a disease called Anthracnose that fits the symptoms.  However, give it a while for some other suggestions to come along.

[sunshineband]

Possibly cucumber mosaic virus -- the lumpy stems and leaves sound rights as well as the yellow bits on the leaves.

[Ice]

Found a photo of mosaic virus.  Does it look like this?

http://0.tqn.com/d/gardening/1/0/J/T/CucumberMosaic.jpg

[Ice]

Just found anthracnose to compare with mosaic virus.

http://www.infonet-biovision.org/res/res/files/699.280x185.clip.jpeg

[sunshineband]

Must be one or the other 

[mollyblob]

It looks more like mosaic virus, but only stays as little spots for a very short time, then the yellow all merges together.  Hmm.  Looks like the answer is yes: my courgettes are doomed :-(

[sunshineband]

Yes I'm afraid they are.

Next year, check out some of the resistant varieties perhaps