Are the bottom of my zucchini plants stems suppose to turn black?

Question

My plants are producing fruit but the base of the leaf stem are turning black.

Answer 1

An easy method to prevent this is to place small plastic trays upside down and place the fruit on the tray.  The fruit now does not have direct contact with the soil and rot is prevented.

Answer 2

if the blackness is mushy. like rotted. then no it is not supposed to do that.

images of various stem rots:

http://images.search.yahoo.com/search/im...

but if it is healthy skin that is just changing colors, like how your skin would still be healthy even if u got a suntan..if it is healthy skin, then it is probably okay. because i have seen my zucchinis get very dark/blackish skin and it seems to be a normal color for them. I mostly noticed it starting at the base of the whole plant.

picture of what i mean:

http://www.its.caltech.edu/~lawler/pictu...

click on that picture so it will enlarge. and then u will see the dark colored main stem i am talking about. ignore how the plant is all tore up, that occured in a hail storm.

how to make a zucchinni stem clarinet:

http://www.ehhs.cmich.edu/~dhavlena/zucc...