Yeah, I was going to say gophers before raise beat me to it. Birds do not usually bother plants that tall, insects probably could not have done it (unless it was a plague of grasshoppers like those that are beginning to attack things here in Texas now) and deer would probably have eaten more and left some tracks or other sign of their presence, I think. They do make some gopher traps, or perhaps some moth balls down that hole might send him packing. You could probably dig them up and dispose of them later when the problem has passed. Good luck in figuring it out, hope that you can get the rest of your corn to grow and produce. Once is gets nearly ready to pick, crows, squirrels, deer, wild hogs or some other things will probably want to help you harvest it. Bill P.

So I got home and dug this sucker up. There were some very fine roots when I scraped away the mulch. I stuck my shovel in and made a wide circle around the plant and got it up. There was some of the original root ball, but when I went to cut some slits into it... most of it came off. Still going to soak it for maybe a half hour. The soil and rootball was actually fairly moist. The shovel cut through the soil pretty easily, although, the soil did seem pretty jam packed... uncertain if it is clay based. I've chopped the soil up to try to make it not one big clump and will not stomp it down like I did when I first planted it. I may mix in a little potting soil for added fluff. I do also have a pellet form of plant food for Rhodies and Azaleas, so I may sprinkle some of that in as well. Here's hoping. I just hope I didn't lose half of what roots there were when I pulled it up. :(

From your initial description of the issues your plants are facing, I was leaning towards thinking your plants were having a root rot issue. I still sort of lean that way, but not as much as I was in the beginning. Root rot is very common on heavy, slow-draining clay and you have fast-draining sandy soil where it is much less common. The specific root rot I had in mind often progresses in a linear manner. For example, if it hits a row of shrubs, you'll see it move from one to another in a linear manner. However, in field crops it also progresses in a circular manner. However, you're in OKC and it is more common in the southern OK counties, and not so much in OKC, I think. If you did find the stringy growth I described in the root zones of dead plants, or observed a white spore mat on the soil surface near those plants, though, I'd go back to my original feeling that it sounds a lot like cotton root rot, which I just happen to have battled here in our heavy red clay. One question that would help rule out cotton root rot is this: when the leaves die, do they cling to the plant or do they drop? Cotton root rot can affect plants very suddenly, it affects over 2000 known species, it is very fast-acting (i.e. quick to kill plants), it moves in a linear or, in crops, in a circular fashion, and it is common in clay soil. So, it might not be your problem, but a similar root rot might be. Keep in mind, there's the disease type of root rot caused by specific fungal diseaes and there's the physiological kind of root rot caused by plants standing in water/wet soil until their roots literally rot and die. The folks at Horn's seemed to lean towards the physiological form of root rot when they expressed their opinion that your plants are being overwatered. You're the one who has to decide if they are right. I still think it is very hard for fast-draining sandy soil to stay wet enough to root rots. One way to figure out if the plants are dying because they are too wet is to dig up a dead plant and look at the roots. Do they look healthy and alive or dead? Since you have sandy soil, I think root knot nematodes could be an issue, but I don't have a lot of experience with them. If you have root knot nematodes, you'll see knots, galls or swellings on the roots of an affected plant that has died. You can google and find a photo of roots with root knot nematode damage. I am inclined to think you need to take a three-pronged approach. 1.) Feed your plants if they haven't been fed in the last couple of weeks. Fast-draining sandy soil that is being heavily watered may not be providing the plants with enough nutrition, and plants that are "hungry" or underfed are more vulnerable to diseases and to heat stress. 2.) Spray with a fungicide on a regular schedule as the fungicide labels direct. Watch to see if your plants improve. 3.) Treat for insects in whatever way you're comfortable using, but I am not convinced they are the issue. And then there is the watering issue. You want your plants to be in moist soil, and you want it to be as uniformly moist as possible. It is better to keep it somewhat moist at all times than to alternate between very dry and very wet because both those extremes stress plants. And, if it were the heavy April/early May rains that were the issue, I would have thought the plants would have showed symptoms long before the heat wave arrived last week. As long as you water with a sprinkler system, your plants are going to be more vulnerable to fungal diseases, so a regular preventative spraying program of fungicide during the growing system probably would be a good idea. You didn't mention if your beds are mulched, but if they aren't, they need to be. Mulching helps keep fungal spores in the soil from being carried up onto the plants by water splashing up when the sprinkler system is in use. I am a little worried about the roses. Look at the undersides of the leaves. Do you see spider mites? Both the fine webbing and the discolored leaves sound like spider mite damage. Look at the photos in the link below and see if they resemble your roses. The ones in the linked photos may be further along with the mites than yours are, but your plants still ought to look similar if it is mites. I don't really know what the answer is as far as plant death. I think it is still likely to be a fungal disease, but without seeing the plants can't rule root knot nematodes in or out, or anything else for that matter. Dawn Here is a link that might be useful: Spider Mites on Roses

Eww, that's nasty. I had an infestion not quite as bad on some euonymus last year, but I got rid of it. Don't give up. Scale can be controlled. Timing is the key. You can spray all you want at the wrong time, and it won't do any good. You have to get scale insects in their 'crawler' stage, which is a narrow window of a week or less. Check with any good local nursery or a county extension agent in your area to find out when they'll be vulnerable. You may be too late for this season (ours were crawling about , but you can get them over winter, too. Use a dormant oil spray like Ortho's Volck Oil, which is available everywhere. Forget about the cooking oil and dish soap concoctions. They're too unpredictable and may hurt the plant. Spray the diluted Volck Oil at the recommended intervals during the dormant season and then watch for scale carefully next season. If you need to spray plants during the growing season, follow the directions for diluting the Volck Oil to growing-season strength, which is half as concentrated as the dormant season spray. Tina McG