Plant Doctor

Let's use this thread to discuss plant ailments and pests, diagnoses, and organic and chemical treatments.

I'll start. The new growth on my Eupatorium is getting eaten (nothing lower down). There's damage on the tops of 5 or 6 or the stems. Isn't Joe Pyeweed a preferred host for a particular kind of moth or butterfly? Could this be what I'm seeing?

I'm afraid I don't have an answer to your problem, wish I did! Perhaps its the same thing as what is eating up all my broccoli... this is my first year growing it, and I know it is prone to a few different kinds of green worms/caterpillars, and I see them on each of leaves of all my plants, right down the center.... grrr. I have that gardenSafe insecticide, but its been so wet that it doesn't do much good.

Hey, it's nice to see you here again! I'm okay with sacrificing a few leaves on the Joe Pyweed. But it's tough when it's your vegetables.

Yes, kathy, it is a host to some butterflies. You need night vision goggles. Or, a flashlight. Go out tonight and take a look.
The slugs are completely out of control this year. I have never had such a lacy garden.

Thanks! I had just gotten done spraying the leaves again and slicing the little green worms on the broccoli, went in for a while, and came back out (in the rain) to slugs all over them... ugh. They almost destroyed my baby cuke, but are leaving my beans alone. So far this year the garden is being taken over by aphids, slugs and annual weeds... I can't keep up!

My kids' preschool had the mail-order butterfly moths in their classroom this year, I believe they were the painted lady butterflies. They liked other stuff, but I think we read a book about butterflies and swallowtails like joe pye weed I believe. And slugs like everything, right? Grrrrrrr

Excellent. I knew that pattern of usage had to be for something looking for a specific home. I just wish the process hadn't gone so fast - I didn't see them!

Yes, the slugs are crazy at my house, too.

Earlier in the spring I had a lot of those pretty white butterflies in my garden and they were flitting all around the kale and the broccoli. I thought they were so sweet. Then the holes started appearing in the leaves. Little light green caterpillars on the undersides of the leaves that my neighbor said came from those butterflies. Gggrrrr. And then the leaf miners. And the slugs. I also got some safe insecticide spray but it is really too wet. Not a good year for vegetables. I've already given up on the chard, bok choy, and lettuces and pulled them out. I'll try again when the rains let up.....

LOL, Judi. Yes, it's such a tradeoff, isn't it?

This week's bug report: I've had a lot of trouble with leafminers on eggplants... I sprayed them with neem oil a few days back - need to check and see if it helped at all..

Something is chewing small holes in a clematis, I think it may be earwigs? Whatever it is, doesn't mind climbing up really high to get at the newest growth.. I carefully sprayed it as well with the oil, but I'm not sure how affective it can be in the rain.

I lost a bunch of fancy squash seed I had started in peat pots to chipmunks who didn't eat it, but reburied it in a corner of my potting soil container... I found it there all sprouting together in one big clump...

The tomatoes are right next to the eggplants, but bug free... still sitting on the back porch in pots... Yesterday, during a thunderstorm I'm positive they told me thanks for not getting them planted out yet....

I saw brown slugs up at the top 3 feet high on my Joe Pyeweed last nigh, so I know they will climb. And there's a snail up on the Mason Bee house on the eaves of my shed. I need to take it down, but need to remove the hive nearby first . . .

For those with caterpillar damage, the best control is Bt powder, which is effective even when wet, though you need to reapply after it washes off. It's 100% deadly but only to the caterpillars.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacillus_thuringiensis

I just don't want to lose my good caterpillars . . .

Your good caterpillars aren't eating the cabbages.

Your good caterpillars aren't eating the cabbages. I use Dipel solely for the crucifers. The only insect control I use on ornamentals is handpicking.

I've had amazingly little slug damage this year. I've been afraid to post it for fear the slug hotline will find out, but I think most of my stuff is big enough now to weather a serious infestation. No clue why I've been spared, although I have sprayed here and there with ammonia/water a couple times. Perhaps it actually works.

I do, however, note that about half my dahlias have not come up this year, and may have been eaten as they sprout - or may have frozen or drowned over winter/spring. I don't lift them, just leave them to chance. Meanwhile, Sorticulture is this weekend in Everett and I plan to replace what is missing with new starts.

I am trying to figure out what is eating the leaves of my flowering cherry. It seems to be the only thing affected right now and somewhere back in my failing memory I think it happened another year. Julie seems to remember something about bugs that crawl up at night??????? I don't see anything on the leaves when I inspect them.

Gypsy moth?

Quite possibly, Kathy. I will have to get something to put around the base of it.

It's my understanding that the early forms of Gypsy Moth aren't usually seen because they're at the top of the tree and then the later forms, when there's a fair amount of damage done, are more visible. Those are the ones that sometimes go down to the ground to sleep and then crawl back up. Weird. But it stood out for me, too.

I also thought something was eating two ornamental cherries in the front yard... they look like they've been hit with a shotgun ever since they leaved, but I never can find any bugs on them (!).... and then I heard someone call into Ciscoe Morris a few week back and describe the same symptoms... he thought it was actually a fungus... the fungus parts fall out making it look like it has been eaten...

Can we get a photo of the leaves? And I assume you've gone out at night to look at the leaves, possibly catching the culprit in action?
Root weevils eat leaves at night. They are decidedly nasty. But you always know when you have them because their eating 'pattern' is to leave notches at the edges of the leaves. Not exactly a shotgun approach.

"Your good caterpillars aren't eating the cabbages." ROFLOL! Good thing I wasn't drinking coffee when you posted that one.

Portland, isn't it sad that such a cute little butterfly, all dainty and white dancing around the plants, can do so much damage in larval form? Good thing there is nothing cute about a slug.

So, kathy, does your post mean that you've determined you actually have slug damage on your joe pye weed? I know I certainly do.

Has anyone used copper strips to keep slugs away? I'd like to know if they actually work. I have some thin copper I could cut into strips to go around the plants the slugs like the most - like anything in the chrysanthemum family, and my dahlias. Anyone have experience with that?

I know for sure that I do have some slug damage because I caught them in action, but I also know that there's somebody living in at least one group of emerging leaves. And I suspect that there were others that have been there and gone because the damage is definitely concentrated at the leaf buds. So far this summer, all I've seen have been white skippers - but then it's been dark and rainy so white is what I would see . . .

I tried copper strips on pots and didn't think they worked. But there may have been eggs inside the strip line that I didn't know about. The jury's out for me on that one. I'm just not methodical enough to figure it our for sure.

You might consider earwigs as your culprit on the joepye weed. They do considerable damage and can be found living in the crevices of plants sometimes. Generally earwig damage makes the leaves look lacy, as opposed to slug and caterpillar damage which makes entire leaves disappear.

I'll try to get batteries charged and get pictures (that aren't blurry) tomorrow.

Kur, too. We need photos of Kur's damaged ornamental cherry leaves.

I warn you... these pics are not pretty.... :)

On a lot of leaves, you can really see what I think is the fungus... eventually the brown spots fall out causing the holes.

Halp! My tomato plants both have black spots all over the leaves now- are they doomed, or can they be saved by using an anti-fungal spray on them? The spray I have says it's only for ornamentals, so I definitely can't use it.

That's one of the leaf blights, which flourish in damp weather. You can see if the plants live long enough to fruit, but don't compost the vines or plant in that same spot for a couple of years.

I always grew my tomatoes in the same place but mulched with about 8" of straw because most tomato diseases are spread by soil splash.

Mine are grown in containers, so at least that's not such a worry. Maybe I'll go buy a couple new plants and keep them far away from these. But is there something safe to spray on them to kill the blight, or are they just going to have to struggle?

Some people use copper spray as a fungicide but its toxicity levels can kill earthworms & marine organisms.

Lame. I don't want to hurt my happy worms. :( Oh well, guess I'll let them be and see what happens.

I'm learning as I go with the climate here when it comes to my beloved veggies, but fortunately a retired guy up the road has a greenhouse & sells a great selection of starts that he knows from experience will do well here. I got a Bloody Butcher, Black Cherry & Silver Fir Tree from him that are doing GREAT & fruiting already.

That's great, Summer. Usually our spring isn't so bad (though it's been cold or rainy the last two years). The biggest trouble with tomatoes is getting them to ripen in September. We often end up with gardens full of slug-infested, wet, rotting greenish red tomatoes in late September.

Surmounting that fate is Job One for me! Space heaters in the mater patch if need be.

What kind of pest would do this to a DL? I've been so excited waiting for this one ('Outrageous') to bloom, and look at what happened to it! :(

Ouch. No clue.

Oooooh. That looks like earwigs. They mar, but don't completely eat through. Reminds me of kids who don't eat the crust . . .

Ugh. It figures. Nasty little monsters, they are.

They are - and the name doesn't help, either.