I'm in trouble

Hi,

This sweet brug is having some major issues. I know someone will know what to do. Here is a bunch of photos of it. The picture with the little girls is how it looked a few weeks ago. It was really mottled at the edges which eventually showed up on all the large leaves. I then cut off all the bad leaves and left only healthy green ones, yet now those are starting to do the same. It has been in this spot for over a year and last summer it did great. It's getting plenty of water and I fertilized it about a month ago with a very neutral fertilizer. My thought is that maybe it has a deficiency of some sort like iron? I also found these super disgusting snail/worm things eating one of the leaves. Honestly, they were so gross I thought it was bird doody!

So what should I do???

Thanks, Christina

This message was edited Jul 16, 2006 6:04 PM

Here's a couple close ups

And another (please ignore my dirty hands! I was laying composted mulch!)

And here's the last one. Thank you :)

It is so gross. LOL. Really wet and fresh and gross.

I have no clue what is wrong but if it is chlorosis it could due to several deficiencies. I thought this link was interesting.
http://www.nrsl.umd.edu/courses/nrsc411/

I think the more common one is iron which seems to start showing with new growth. Magnesium starts with the older leaves though.

When mine are iron deficient, the entire leaf gets yellowish.

Christina,

I dont know what it is or what has caused it but I can tell you that it's not just you that is having this problem. I am having the same thing happen to mine and i've also been told by a close friend that they as well as a few others are experiencing the same thing.

I'm not only having the motteld leaves but yellow leaf drop like a few others i've seen posting on here. I think the yellow leaves if you look under a magnifying glass are probably infested with mites. Mine were and i've since trimmed my brugs a bit,removed all of the large leaves and treated them with di-syston.

Kell, thank you. The yellowing is starting on the oldest leaves, so perhaps it's the magnesium. I have a leaf bagged and ready to go to the nursery to question them. I also brought along my 'doody' friends. Yuck! Thanks for the link, it was good. Makes me think other plants need things too!

Michael, thank you as well. I'm glad I'm not the only one, but how sad for us all! I don't think it's mites, although I do often get mites on other plants nearby (especially on a morning glory). I haven't heard of di-syston, is it systemic? You've also got me curious as to where "by the ocean" is?

Christina,di-syston is a granular type systemic. When my plants get mites,I usually use kelthane on them but I dont ever seem to get al areasa of the plant covered so the mites always return.

A friend recommended di-syston so I went out and bought some this past thursday and used it on all of my plants which by the was is LOT!!

With all of the tropicals,the hoyas and the cacti there must be in the neighborhood of over 400 plants divided between 3 gh's.

By the ocean is about a 25 minute drive south of Myrtle Beach. I wasnt paying attention that you were form San Diego either. I have a cousin who lives there.

Shes a West Virginian by birth but her husband is Navy and they are stationed there,have been for around 10-12 years now I guess. She is employeed at the San Diego zoo. They've been asking me for all that time to come and visit and i've yet to make it out that way.

Who knows maybe i'll get to the west coast soon. I'd love to get over there and get turned loose in some of those cactus nirseries!!! Boy would I be in trouble then!

David

The 3 girls are so adorable.. great picture..

David, thanks again for the info. I put some bayer rose and bloom on it a while back, so I'd better wait until that is gone. I made a booboo though, didn't realize you were supposed to disolve it in water first! I sprinkled it around the base and watered it in (but I can still see some of the pellets). I'm a novice, what can I say? As for the mites, I have good luck with Neem Oil.

You should visit San Diego! The zoo is a marvelous place, the best zoo I've ever seen, even if I am biased. Now that I have a new passion for gardening I love it even more since the plants are AMAZING there. I'm a zoo member and go often. Some day I'll head to Myrtle Beach too, I have two of my sister in laws in North Carolina and they go yearly.

Hope; thank you I think so too. It was impossible to get them all to look at the same time though. :)

The one in pigtails is my 3 year old neice and the other two are sisters whom live two doors down. This was during my fourth of july party and it was pure luck that my brug happened to be in the background which was handy for the post since the leaves have since been cut off!

I agree - the plants are amazing at the zoo. Do you think it's because of all the free fertilizer? LOL I always take visitors there, and they're always amazed. Not at all what one expects a zoo to be.

Hello again,

I went to the nursery today and asked them about my bugs. They said they thought "sawflies" but I looked up the photos and out of hundreds of pictures I only found one that was remotely like them something called a pear sawfly. Does this ring any bells for anyone? They suggested ortho's systemic as a solution, but even ortho's website isn't recommending that - so no I'm thoroughly confused. Any ideas?

Thanks, Christina

Doesn't ring a bell. Did you go to Anderson's Nursery? How helpful they are depends on the luck of the draw. Sometimes they have good people at the counter and sometimes people that aren't experts yet. Wish I could be some help. :-(

The bugs are so bad this year that I have just taken to going out every morning and asking them politely to leave me some plants. I can just see me up on a ladder trying to spray the Monster with neem. The bean crop was decimated. I got 6 Dragon's Tongues off of 2 rows of beans!!

I thought the pear sawflies just munched fruit trees like pear and cherry and the like. I had hornworms infest the brugs last year. I about had a fit. HD does not sell BT by the gallon Lol.

I just loved the San Diego zoo when I went 24 years ago. I would just love to go back. Do they still have that hummingbird room you get to go in?

Cnswift, I do not know if this would be effective but I just love Bayer Tree and Shrub, a systemic. It is a soil drench and so easy to use. NO spraying! And 1 application lasts up to 1 year. It is expensive but I think worth it because it lasts so long in the plant. It says Sawfly Larvae on the label.

http://www.bayeradvanced.com/garden/products/details.cfm?id=12

Oh Frogs, sounds like you are having a hard time of it but your sense of humor is sure intact. LOL

Frogsrus, at least you have a sense of humor! The one in question isn't the one that come from you, but another pink one - frosty pink? I'm actually more worried about the chlorosis (now that I know what it is) since that seems more devastating than the chewed leaves.

Since you jumped in, I have good news to tell you Janice. All the plants you gave me are working out fine! Yes, all! I ended up with three monsters out of the huge branch you cut for me, and the butterfly is really taking off. Even the sage and the other tree are looking pretty nice. I even had to give the brug tree a 'haircut' since it was stretching out too much. :)

This message was edited Jul 18, 2006 9:08 PM

Kell, thanks I like the idea of no spraying since it's so difficult to get 'under' the leaves. I've tried the bayer rose and bloom before, so I might give this a go too. A year sure does sound enticing! Do you ever have to spray it with anything in addition, or does it wipe everything out? As for the zoo, I don't recall a hummingbird room, so I'm not sure it's there still.

mpabbott1, yes I was at Walter Andersons. I think you're right about the counter people. Although I really like the older guy they called John O. He's very knowledgable and so sweet.

You have seen what can happen when KBS and butterfly take off. Glad everything has taken toehold. I was just contemplating the beast in my front yard this am. I REALLY need to cut it back but I hate to defoliate it in this heat. I only have a few more feet to ammend and the rest of the front will be ready for planting.

By not spraying, I got to see my first male carpenter bee so it pays to be polite LOL!
I have damsel flies as well as dragonflies this year. Another first. I am cultivating a friendship with a small flock of phoebes-I give tem some seed and they eat bugs. I have a pair of orioles that keep the morning glory picked fairly clean. My snail eater-the possum has got to move on though.

Great day
Janice

I need a pair of orioles! That morning glory of mine is the most high-mantenence plant in my yard.

What does KBS stand for?

You have a great day too!

'Kurpark Bad Salzschlirf'

What kind of MG do you have. I do nothing to mine but hack off the runners now and then.

Oh! Didn't realize that it had a name. Good to know. Sounds German or Austrian?

I didn't realize there were different kinds of morning glories. I'll take a photo and see if anyone can identify them. They really are blooming up a storm, but sure need a lot of tlc.

Oh there are lots of them. I grow Blue Dawn which is a seedless perennial. If you ever need one, give me yell and I will saart one for you.

I looked at the photos for blue dawn and they look exactly like what I have. I am shocked that you don't have bugs! Lucky lucky! Maybe they're flying in from our canyon?

This message was edited Jul 20, 2006 6:26 AM

How do you have your Blue Dawn contained? They are like kudzu.

Hi there. Those disgusting wet-looking grubs are the larvae of a beetle - nothing to do with sawflies! I have almost exactly the same here and they turn into a beetle about half an inch long with black and yellow longitudinal stripes. Yours probably isn't the same species since we on opposite sides of the Pacific, but it sure looks VERY similar. The ones here feed exclusively on Brug/Solanaceae family and they attack my Iochromas as well. Both the larvae and the adults feed on the plants, but the adults don't go around in groups!

Welcome to Dave's, Alistair! We would love to see your Australian brugs. Do you have ones that are a lot different than ours here in the US?

Thanks Kell. We're poor relations with Brugs! Only about 20-25 cultivars available here but some quite good new ones I suspect grown from US-hybridised seed, and rapidly growing interest here.

This is Buck's Fizz

This is called Pink Panther here, but there is a different US-bred Pink Panther....

This one flowers right through winter where I am (frequent light frosts)

More, but these are a couple of the best!

This message was edited Jul 20, 2006 4:18 AM

Kell, my blue dawn is in the ground, but in small planting beds surrounded by concrete. I can see why you'd compare to kudzu as they send out 10' runners on a daily basis. I rip them out by the handfulls!

Alistair, hi thanks for the insight on the beetles. Do you have a photo of an adult? I'd like to try and identify them. Ironically, we got a notice in the mail yesterday about a dangerous beetle that we're supposed to report if we see it. Of course I can't find the picture now though, I think hubby threw it away. I'll ask a neighbor if they still have it. Your brugs are gorgeous!

Hi Again,

The more I research plant leaf chlorosis, the more I am convinced that I have a maganese defficiency. (Are maganese and magnesium the same thing?) This site had a couple photos and some good information, which made me think that the same defficiency is causing problems in several areas of my garden that were previously a mystery: http://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profiles0705/nutrient_deficiencies.asp. Are epsom salts my solution? Should I spray them on the leaves or soak them into the roots or both? Would additional compost and/or mulch be good too?

Thank you!

A couple of your best Alistair are a couple of beauties for sure. Such great blooms! Looks like you have tropical gardens. How great you are here to share your Australian garden with us.

I have a Blue Dawn in a big pot, trained as a standard on a shape. And that plant has a brain, it was putting out long, long runners out of the back where I couldn't see them. It can be an evil plant and cover whole houses.

Gee Christina, I am not a minors expert. Maybe someone who is will jump in. But yes, manganese and magnesium are not the same thing.

I use Epsom salts for magnesium. I just put a handful in my pots and water in. Treat them now and see if it helps. It won't hurt. I add it to my roses all year long.
http://www.epsomsaltcouncil.org/garden_benefits.htm

Since I do a lot of pot culture, I add fertilizer with minors at times. I look for them in the store. I also have an Osmocote that has lots of minors. Pot culture really drains the soil of all the good things over time so you must replace them.

I also add lots of natural things like rock dusts, fish meal, alfalfa, and what ever else I happen to see. Since I have no clue what I am doing, I just buy whatever and try whatever. So far it all has worked well except the time I tried molasses in alfalfa sludge. That was disaster. I have 2 great stores I buy all sorts of soil additives from, so I get different things each visit. My latest is worm castings, I have been adding this to every pot and under my some of my in grouond plants that need a boost.

If I thought I had a deficiency, I would just add a really good fertilizer with minors and see if it helped. I would hit across the spectrum.

Here are 3 interesting links on feertilizers/minors.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/06/03/HOGC7J5DA21.DTL

http://mgonline.com/fertilize.html

http://www.smallgrains.org/Techfile/Franzen.htm

I also toss a bags of steer manure mixed with compost under my plants in the garden twice a year.

Kell, that was great information. I just bookmarked several of those links for future reference. Thank you so much. I'd say you have a major 'clue' as to what you're doing! :)

Actually I don't. LOL. I am heavily into begonias right now and my usual philosophy of more is better is not working at all. I am finally learning some restraint in my life.

Sorry: I didn't take pics. Went out yesterday to see if there were any of the beetles about, but its winter and I guess they are hibernating somewhere....

Alistair, no worries, thanks for checking. I always forget it's winter there.

Kell, good luck with your begonias. They sure are unusual looking!

Here is a pic of her looking pitful at the end of the day. She will be bright blue tomorrow morning, and every morning, all year round. i wil try to remember to post a pic. The arch is about 6 feet high and the plant just piles itself on top. Won't even clumb down the other side. It is two years old. I got it from Pudgymudpies. It is a very well behaved MG. It just keeps climbit itsself. I do keep a lot of mulch under it. You can see the remulching project in progress. The larkspurs and watsonias have had their day and must now be pulled and chopped.

Alaistair the brugs are lovely. My poor babies are toasty. I just tossed out some more Alaska for them. (Please do not tell them it is supposed to be mixed with water.)

Now this beast it unruly. Note the poor Charles Grimaldi begging for mercy and sunlight. His pot is under said beast. The passi is in a 5 gal pot.

Yup, my morning glory looks about the same. I don't recall it looking so hot in the winter, but it sure is pretty all summer, spring and fall. I think the leaves got all sickly yellow and spotted in winter, perhaps because I was lazy and didn't spray or do anything to them. I was thinking this winter that I might cut it drastically and let it rejuvinate in the spring.

I'm laughing at the 'unruly beast' who is in a 5 gal. pot! I have a passion 'fruit' vine that seems to grow more slowly and is less trouble. I do love them however!

This message was edited Jul 20, 2006 7:14 PM

Beware, they fool you like that! This was once a poor bedraggled seedling that I begged to put out just ONE flower. This plant is less than a year old. It gets a haircut and a new home come fall. The poor mandevilla loathes it lol!