When this started I thought it was the heat. Leaves were turning brown and crispy around the edges. Then the whole leaf turned brown. It hit my buddelia first, now its effecting my black and blue slavia and my purple conflowers. I can see no indication of insects. Maybe it is just heat. What do ya'll think.
Heres another picture
Here's the salvia.
Are you seeing any webbing on the plants? Does your butterfly bush look worse?
Really can't tell much from the pix but here is a shot in the dark ,,Did you recently fertilize these plants because my first thought was they were suffering from being fertilized in the hot weather .. Now just a first impression mind you ''
Haven't seen any webbing. I used a slow release fertilizer at the beginning of summer (late May, early June). The butterfly bush is dead. It was in the back yard, these are in the front. The cone flowers were looking really good until the last few days. They get morning and late afternoon sun. The salvia gets sun from ,id day on. At this point I'm ready to do just about anything. I've already lost my other black and blue salvia to rats.
The reason I asked about the webbing is I was thinking Spider Mites. They love Butterfly Bushes and killed two HUGE plants that I had last summer. I agree, the pictures you posted dont look like SM damage, but you may have more them 1 issue or SM may have nothing to do with it.
I think spider mites as well. You can spray with compost tea, soap and water mix to get rid of them.
I can't tell from the pics but honestly I have had plants die and there was no insects to blame. In a more normal year they might be able to survive SM and other pests but this year it is probably the nail in the coffin so to speak. I would spray and give more water and see what happens. Thinking we will all be replacing plants after this summer...
C
Looks like my plants that I was having to water too much due to the heat and they received too much fertilizer from the soil. I have lost a bunch of plants due to rats as well.
I can't imagine having rats eating plants. How awful. Is this the first year you all have had this problem? Is there anything you can do to get rid of them?
I have had this happen to plants and never figured out what happened. In the heat and severe drought I feel like your plants look. I will be glad when it cools off this fall. Hope you can save your plants from what ever it is.
Rat problem: We have had a rat problem for at least 3 years. The only things that we have done is place a lot of rat traps with peanut butter at night in the containers and the areas where the rats are eating the plants. It is tiresome because the traps have to be unset every morning so that our dogs don't get hurt and then reset each night. If the dogs need to go out, I have to accompany them to be sure that they don't go after the peanut butter. Our little Jack Russell dog helps out too. He has killed a few. My husband bought an electronic device that emits sound to keep the cats out of one of my flowerbeds. It has worked very well. Payday, he is buying another one to see if it will deter the rats at night and the squirrels that are digging up plants in the daytime. Also, I have sprayed diluted peppermint oil on my containers and the lattice boards where the rats were eating my vines. This seems to have helped as well.
What about the motion detected sprinklers? Would they work with the rats? I know they are suppose to work for something as big as a cat. That is a lot of work to do every day and night. I hope you can find something that is much easier to keep them out.
Unfortunately, I can't place sprinklers in the main areas that they are eating the plants ... thanks for the suggestion though. I'm scared to use rat poison.
I use it in my shed. I have a small yard and I can easily make the rounds to make sure there are no dead rodents for the dog to find.
C
I'm always afraid the dogs will somehow eat the rat poison or the birds of prey will eat the poisoned rats and mice. I have happily been the host to 3 or 4 red shoulder hawks and at least 3 red-tailed hawks for the past week. They are visiting to drink water and bathe in the large birdbaths as well as scout for food. Hopefully, they are preying on mice and rats instead of the birds. The red shoulder hawks are new visitors this year. They are very noisy calling to each other all day long. Their call is very distinctive. It appears that they took over the nesting site of the red-tailed hawks that have been camping out in a large tree in the field behind my house for many years.
Speaking of rats, I had to stop putting out bird seed when one evening we saw a "non-bird" helping themselves to the seed! YUCK! I've since read if you have a bird feeder, you probably have rats! And I'm in the burbs of Houston, not the country. They are everywhere! Nothing seems to be eating my plants in the critter category at this point, just bugs.
Calloway's/Cornelius Nursery posted that the high "air temperature" is cooking a lot of plants. I have more burned leaves on many things that are in shade and have the correct amount of water. Mother Nature is on a rampage and we just have to grin and bear it.
Also a lot of people still come home from work and see a plant drooping from the heat and put water on them right away. The sun is still up for a couple hours and cooks the leaves and makes it worse. All watering should be done after sundown or before sun comes up in these temps.
We've had the rats in the past and had gotten rid of them, until the drought. We used a type of poison, called single action. it only hurts the animal that ingests it, not any animal that eats them. You put it in enclosed bait boxes, like you see outside of resturaunts. Its more expensive but effective. We also put out half filled 5 gallon water buckets. The m rats fall in and can't get out. My red healer is a great ratter, but these days she doesn't want to have to work that hard.:)
Something is eating my bell peppers right off the plant. Most probably rats. We have all kinds of wildlife at the bird baths. I have four spaced out around the back yard and there is something drinking from them almost constantly. The one nearest the house has a fountain and so does the pond. Have to fill twice a day as the evaporation from 110 degrees is swift.
Yes this drought is killing things that would otherwise live. I have a pokeweed that 1of the trunks coming out of the ground did not bounce back after watered. I cut it back yesterday and watered it really good. The other trunk that looked great last night is beyond saving today. I hope I can make it till oct with the rest of my plants. I need to think twice about bringing home any more healthy plants marked down from lowe's as I am not sure just keeping them watered in this heat will be good enough.
I was at Lowe's today and a grackle was drinking the run off on the concrete from them watering. I pushed my buggy slowly within a foot of him and he didn't try to run. I bet his feet felt good while he was standing in the water. I wish I had had something to feed him with his cool drink.
Keep cool everyone.
I tried using rat poison a few years ago. Last resort, but they were just too close to my house, and very brazen. Anyway, the first thing that happened is that my dog ate it. Luckily she didn't get enough to cause any damage, but it could've been horrible. Next we tried traps, and they hadn't been out there 15 minutes before the dog went for the peanut butter and set them off. We gave up and (broke my heart) took down the bird feeders.
Htop a friend told me about the electronic sound devices and I bought one Then she e amailed me about another one that is 1/3 the price we paid for the original one got the cheaper one thru LTD Commodities www.ltdcommodities.com ya might want to google that and check it out I bought 3 of those from LTD and they were shipped promptly and as a bonus these were the solar type which was really high at Lowes..I don't have rats but the cat takes care of moles and such in the front yard but she stays out of the back as her and one of the dogs don't get along to well..
Rampbrat this is alittle update on the dying plants I just had a couple of tropical Hibiscus show pretty much the same symptoms after being watered with GREY water and in the 3 years I have had the grey water system in place have had other things show a dis like for the water ..Now just a guess but I think it is likely the high alkaline content of the detergent used in the wash water ..Anyone else have some thoughts on this ..My tank is full right now so do need to go take a reading..
