Is There Something Wrong With My Plants?

I am a beginner gardener (about 3 weeks now) and I just recently got my winter garden in the ground. My plants seem to be growing pretty well but recently I have noticed some weird patterns on the leaves of my pumpkin, watermelons, acorn squash, and cucumbers. Also my tomato plant (I cheated with this cause I felt bad for it in the Home Depot) seems to be dying at the bottom and some of the fruits have weird marks on them. If anyone can help me out with what is going on here and what I can do to fix it I would be really thankful.


These pics are from my phone so they are not the best quality.

This message was edited Jul 26, 2009 7:23 PM

Tomatoes.

Tomato leaves.

The first picture shows extensive leaf miner activity. The rest, I am not sure, sorry. Hopefully others will pipe in.

Hey Annabelle (my grandmother's name -- and my sister's name is Belle!), welcome to the wonderful world of gardening!

I agree with Feldon30 on the first pic. Extensive leaf miner damage. I've been pulling off any leaves that have those lines, to keep it in check. Examine your leaves, and snip off any that have the lines. Some leaves you can snip just the line part off. Others you might need to sacrifice the whole leaf. Once you get the majority off, it'll be easy to keep them in check.

Leaf miners (I believe), are actually burrowing THROUGH the leaf, hence the line you see. They're exceedling tiny enough to actually get inside the leaf membrane and do their damage, so head 'em off at the pass!

The third pic looks familiar, as several of my tomato cuttings are doing the same thing. The leaves are turning brown and get crispy. As soon as I purchase a new set of clippers, I'm going to clip off the brown leaves, making sure to DISINFFECT my clippers between plants, by dipping in a solution of water:bleach, 9:1 (nine parts water, 1 part bleach). Then, I'm going to gently mist my cuttings with the recommended application of Ortho Garden Disease Control concentrate.

Oh, yeah, start yourself a "hospital" ward and remove the plants that have any diseases, suspect growths, lesions, etc. to the quarantine section, away from your healthy plants! Treat your infected/sick plants away from your good crop.

Have you sprayed and fungicides for diseases, or miticides for insects (like spider mites, aphids (a good blast of soapy water will send them on the run -- a few drops of regular Lemon Ajax in your sprayer works well). Pay careful attention to getting your spray on the UNDERsides of your leaves, where most the the insect activity occurs. They like to hide underneath, so aim that sprayer "down under".

Keep us posted on what you find out about your 2nd pic. I'll mark this thread for watching.

Finally, DG is a very open, loving, and friendly environment. Don't ever be afraid to call for help, and by all means, ASK YOUR QUESTIONS. We all were beginners once, and someone gave us an answer. So ASK away!

Linda

Thanks for the advice guys, I'm gonna stop by one of the local nurseries while I'm out today and see if they carry some organic insecticide to help with the situation. I'm also hoping to find out whats wrong with the tomatoes. Will post when I return.

When you spray Under the leaves like Linda has said the remedy doesn`t get washed off by rain so quickly. That is a very important tip. Use a stick to lift your leaves a bit. Good luck with your garden. Karen

Well I went to a nursery and was told to try some Green Light Lawn and Garden Spray with Spinosad for the leaf miner problem. I asked about the tomatoes and the guy said it looks like it could be blossom end rot but I need to take one of the fruits to him so he can be sure. If it is blossom end rot is my plant doomed or can it be fixed? As for spraying with soapy water, should I wait a few days after I spray with the insecticide so as to not wash it away?

Um, I'd just put a good squeeze of Lemon Ajax in the same sprayer with the insecticide and go for it in one fell swoop. But, that's just me, and I'm no expert here.

Someone else might chime in that you should spray separately.

I have used pyrethrin which is a organic insecticide with dish soap and it worked fine. Try some on a few leaves to make sure if you are trying something new. Pyrethrin dust works good too and is long lasting provided it doesn`t rain heavily then it must be re applied.

Karen

What you have on the tomatoes is not Blossom End Rot. I saw some like that on another thread but can't remember what they said it was. Maybe to much rain. The leaves on tomatoes just do like that. Take your sissors and cut it off. You don't really need all those leaves anyway.