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Container Gardening

My coleus is pouting, not growing. What's eating it?

18 years ago

Every year I pot up a number of large planters with mixes of annuals, perennials, bulbs and grasses.

The coleus is slower than the rest to start growing every year. This year, it's slower than ever. Everything else is growing like crazy.

I need the coleus to catch up as it is a primary filler plant among taller things (cannas, purple founain grass) and trailing things (verbenas, sweet potato vines, lobelias).

The weather has been mostly cloudy, with some sun breaks and few sunny days. Everything is receiving plenty of moisture. I put Osmocote in the planters at time of planting.

One thing that has happened to some, but not all, of the coleus is that the leaves are being seriously munched on. They have huge holes in them. I thought it was slugs, but I put slug bait in the pots and have only killed a few. What else likes to eat coleus? Maybe earwigs?

Anyway, any thoughts would be appreciated. As I said, even the ones that aren't being eaten are just sitting there. Are they waiting for hotter days? that would surprise me since most coleus are grown in shade. (These, by the way, are the coleus that are supposed to like sun as well as shade.)

Help!

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Comments (4)

gurley157fs
18 years ago
My potted coleus is also at a standstill, nothing is eating it but it has barely grown at all. Normally by now it is overflowing the pot.
The coleus that I planted in the ground is doing fine though( a different type, purchased at a different location).
Very unusual.
Eliza_ann_ca
18 years ago
Mine are growing,but very slowly compared to all other plants.I have one container that is a mix of all different colors,but if it doesn't soon start to grow,summer will be over.
I'm really not sure what the problem is,as we've had great growing weather,warm and humid with lots of sunshine.I have mine in about half day shade at the best.
Maybe it's just not a good year for Coleus or we may wake up one morning soon to see that they've taken a giant leap.
I hope so,as I love their brilliant colors!

eliza Ann
Related Discussions
What happens to my Coleus?
Q
Comments (4)
Do the leaves have white spots? That webby reference makes me think it's spider mites. If the leaves have white spots like something has been sucking the juices of the plant that would confirm it You can spray them with neem oil spray getting the undersides of the leaves and when you water apray the plant too with a fairly forceful spray but not enough to harm the plant. Again get the undersides of the leaves. You can never kill them all but you can control them. Spider mites like it hot and dry and hate cold and wet so maybe if you make it uncomfortable for them they will move on.
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Coleus - what's been eating my leaves?
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Ditto on the slugs. It's a constant battle in all but one raised garden without much mulch and full sun. They've started on other plants already and pretty sure they'll hit the Coleus once I get them in the ground. If it's not one critter it's another! I just chased a groundhog out of the garage. I can't stand it sometimes. He left his 2 buddies home for this trip. Slug bait, diomataceous earth...anything to kill them. Slug bait doesn't disappear in the rain like diomataceous earth.
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what's eating coleus?
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Comments (4)
I'd bet my bottom dollar it's Earwigs. A very effective bait is equal parts of soy sauce, oil and molasses. The molasses is bait to attract them--the oil doesn't allow them to crawl back out and the salt in the soy sauce finishes them off. Put it in a small container and bury it up to the brim. Prop a lid over it so it doesn't get diluted by rain and so it is a nice dark place for them to hide--ha. You might have to wait a couple of days for it to work but it does work. Your container will be full of them. If you go through this website you will find lots of testimonials to this method
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What is eating my coleus?
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Comments (9)
Coleuslover-- Those worms come from trees. We had a major infestation of them in our maples for 2 years in a row. I never did find out what moth laid those eggs but they denuded the tree and then came down out of the tree on web-like lines. It was dangerous to walk under the tree when this was going on. It happened that my coral bells were under that tree and they chowed down on it until there was scarcely a leaf left. Because I didn't walk under the tree when this was going on I never noticed. If I had noticed I would have sprayed them with insecticidal soap but I doubt it would have done much because there were so many of them. It works well on soft bodied insects. The good thing was that this only took place for a few weeks and then they moved on or something and never came back. The leaves regrew on both the tree and my coral bells. I
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duane456
18 years ago
I live in OR,too. My coleus is having issues too. I think we haven't had enough temps in the 80's
tapla (mid-Michigan, USDA z5b-6a)
18 years ago
I'm with Duane in thinking it could be temperature. Here's why: I have a couple of plants in small pots on which I continually pinch out the growing tips & prune off the larger leaves. The result is a very compressed mound of small foliage, a very interesting specimen and a wonderful gift, the only cost of which is the price of the pot & a little time (plant grown from cuttings - thus, free). But, I'm getting away from the subject & why I think it's temperature related. Container soil temperatures follow the ambient temperatures closely. E.g. when ambient temperatures move from 60 - 80*, the container temperature isn't far behind, perhaps a day at most in large containers, and a few hours in smaller containers. Here in MI, we just finished a couple of weeks of weather that was very warm (for us). ;o) While day temperatures hovered around the 90* mark, night temps were around 70*. During that time, the coleus were needing pinching/pruning every other day. Early this week, temperatures have struggled to make 70* with nights being substantially cooler. The result is I haven't needed to prune since last Mon (today being Sat), so, I believe the cause to be temperature related. It's also possible that the somewhat gloomy days have contributed to lack of growth here as well.

Now, at least if you're not buying my reasoning, at least you have a neat idea on how to make a unique plant from a coleus.

Al

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