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Vegetable Gardening

Can anyone tell me what's eating my lettuce?

11 years ago

I don't see any bugs on the plants when I look, but I see holes chewed in my lettuce leaves... any ideas? :-\

This is my arugula, they seem to be the worst... so it's something that likes pepper! LOL Also have some chewing holes on my cauliflower leaves. Thanks!

{{gwi:51059}}

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Comments (10)

socks
11 years ago
Could it be slugs?
digdirt2
11 years ago
Could be slugs tho the damage is minimal so it could just as easily be holes punched by the straw mulch on a windy way.

You don't indicate your zone or where you live so I can't tell if it is too early for flea beetles there but they would do more damage than that I think.

Pull the mulch back from the plants a bit and see if that doesn't fix the problem.

Dave
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The white dots are salt deposits left behind when sap that makes its way to the leaf surface evaporates. ..... not sure what caused the brown, crusty patches on the epidermis. It could be any number of things: sunburn (photo-oxidation), something phytotoxic landing on the leaves (like hair spray or mist from a spray room deodorizer), air pollution (smokers in the house?), over-watering/oedema, a cleaning agent that might have been used to remove dust from leaves ....... Really - there's not enough info to make a meaningful diagnosis. Al
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Agree with chlorosis. Iron deficiency produces interveinal chlorosis, where the veins stay kinda green and the areas between them turn yellow. That's what I see here. This condition is enhanced in cool, wet weather, especially with alkaline soil. There is typically plenty of iron in California soils, so it's an issue of availability. You could acidify, but I think the smartest thing to do is just let the soil dry out.
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sunnibel7 Md 7
11 years ago
Before I saw Dave's comment, my thought was that it looked like holes from the mulch on a windy day... So that's two votes for that!
flora_uk
11 years ago
Are you sure that's lettuce? Doesn't look like it to me. Looks more like a Brassica, maybe arugula? I also think slugs would have made a more thorough job of it.
QueenOfKing
Original Author
11 years ago
PS I'm in zone 4
digdirt2
11 years ago
Isn't is awfully early for mulch to be down in zone 4? At any rate you can and should include that in your log-in name - see how we all have that info after our names? Set it up so it is automatic.

If it isn't the mulch then as I said above slugs - maybe there is just 1 small one so far - is the next best bet and one of the several slug/snail baits will take care of that.

Dave
flora_uk
11 years ago
Duh ... I need to read more carefully.
QueenOfKing
Original Author
11 years ago
Thanks dave. I had the straw down to keep weeds out. Weeds were already popping up everywhere and I hate weeding lol. I'll fix my zone thing in my name. :)
QueenOfKing
Original Author
11 years ago
OK guys I found some culprits? in the garden this morning - going to upload some pics and start a new thread... I've got to get rid of whatever it is eating my plants (organically please??)
QueenOfKing
Original Author
11 years ago
Pics of the critters and damage -
http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/cornucop/msg0611294628865.html

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