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What is eating my garden? Wilting and brown/yellow leaves
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Posted by
kaysnydes FL (
My Page) on
Tue, Jun 19, 12 at 17:29
| I'm new to vegetable gardening. I have a small plot in our community garden in central FL and I've planted a number of vegetables from seeds and some transplants. A lot of my plants have leaves that sort of look like they are wilting -- especially the Okra. At first I thought it was red ants because I've seen a lot of those in the garden. Then yesterday I noticed these black bugs on some of the leaves (see picture). A lot of plants have yellow and brown spots (especially the pole beans) and are losing leaves. My cherry tomato plants and sweet potato have also been affected. It seems that the leaves on the bottom of the plants have more damage than the top (for the tomatoes).
Any idea what is causing this? Is it those black bugs? What do I do? Thanks in advance for your input :) |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: What is eating my garden? Wilting and brown/yellow leaves
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| Looks like a ladybug larvae...aka, good stuff. |
RE: What is eating my garden? Wilting and brown/yellow leaves
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| Do you have aphids on your plants by any chance? Tiny greenish-white or black insects. The ladybug larvae eat them whereas the ants protect the aphids. |
RE: What is eating my garden? Wilting and brown/yellow leaves
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| Don't kill that little guy! He's definitely a ladybug larvae! Lucky you! I agree with the above poster. It may be aphids. I squish them by hand daily on all of my plants. |
RE: What is eating my garden? Wilting and brown/yellow leaves
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| Def leaf spot. You need to start a fungicide regimine. Copper fungicide is normally used. That is a good bug for aphids. Where there are ants there are aphids. |
RE: What is eating my garden? Wilting and brown/yellow leaves
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| Try this site. Look around. It has a diagnostic key for your plants. |
Here is a link that might be useful: Leaf diseases
RE: What is eating my garden? Wilting and brown/yellow leaves
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| sorry about the wrong answer it is more of a downy mildew than a leaf spot. the copper fungacide program still the same. |
RE: What is eating my garden? Wilting and brown/yellow leaves
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| Not downy mildew. Please post an image of the entire plant. |
RE: What is eating my garden? Wilting and brown/yellow leaves
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| jean oo1a - if not downy mildew then it does kinda look like a bacterial leaf spot. |
RE: What is eating my garden? Wilting and brown/yellow leaves
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| First, florida is a land apart when it comes to gardening, so don't take advice here, go to the florida forum where there are some resident veggie experts. Second, don't use poisons. All plant weaknesses are due to a lack, and in florida you can be pretty sure that lack is soil nutrition. Combine with heat stress and the result is vulnerability to just about anything. In concert with my folks we have been gardening in central fl for a long time. The first really successful garden we have had was this spring in a new plot near a lake which provided some constant soil moisture in the root-zone, and we loaded the soil with organic minerals. Finally we got some plants that produced heavily since they were not moisture-deprived and nutrient-starved. Occasional or even daily overhead watering does not suffice in the florida climate unless evaporation is controlled. Also in florida it is getting late now for common beans and tomatoes to be productive due to heat. Only in the best of circumstances would they continue much longer. Next year have your successive crop of legumes - limas and cowpeas - sowed by May to replace the bean crop. |
RE: What is eating my garden? Wilting and brown/yellow leaves
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| i lived in florida for two years and found it to be hot and humid and the hot summer months down right miserable. that is why i moved back to texas were it is the second most miserable. the humidity will spread all kinds of diseases there. sometimes i miss gardening in florida because you could grow something all year round. |
RE: What is eating my garden? Wilting and brown/yellow leaves
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| Ladybugs! Wonderful. Thanks for your input, everyone! I don't know about aphids. I have seen tiny yellow ovalish things on the underside of leaves. Are those aphids? I attached a picture of one of the okra plants. Whatever it is, I'd really rather not use poisons. As pnbrown said, the soil has zero nutrition here (it's not even soil, it's sand). I did double dig the bed and mix in a ton of mushroom compost back in April before I planted anything. |
RE: What is eating my garden? Wilting and brown/yellow leaves
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| And here's a tomato plant... |
RE: What is eating my garden? Wilting and brown/yellow leaves
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| And pole beans (I planted yardlong beans and Kentucky Wonder) |
RE: What is eating my garden? Wilting and brown/yellow leaves
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| Other than the bacterial leaf spot. Your okra has pretty bad nutrient defiency. I had that prob this year but over came it with a foliage spray fish emulsion. Seaweed extrat and a iron chelate mixed in gallon sprayer. Sprayed once week until it cleared up. He is right you have some pretty bad soil there. I would never recommend using poison around veg crops. |
RE: What is eating my garden? Wilting and brown/yellow leaves
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| Kay, I can tell you that the mushroom compost has little minerals in it. It is a good base to add minerals to, whether salts or rock powders, urine, wood-ash, etc. Helps a lot with moisture retention. |
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