Newbie gardener concerned about white spots (PICS)

15 years ago

Hello -

I have a small raised-bed garden behind my house that I planted with transplants of various vegetables and flowers. Everything is coming along nicely so far, but I've just noticed in the last day or two that most of my leaves have light white spots. My initial thought is that it's powdery mildew, though it doesn't exactly look like most of the pictures I've seen. It almost looks like someone has been painting nearby (obviously not the case). Examples here, on the tomatoes, squash, pepper, and zucchini:

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I also noticed my flowers, which appear to be generally healthy, are having some problems with their leaves. Though I suppose it could be sunburn/scalding, it does look like it could be something more serious as well. I'm concerned that this is a later stage of the same disease/issue. You notice it's worst on the lower leaves of these flowers:

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But it's also appearing as white spots on the marigolds as well:

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Any ideas/advice? I'm new at all this, and want to ensure that as many of plants as possible survive (though I'm obviously more concerned about the vegetables).

Thanks in advance!

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Comments (7)

jimster
15 years ago
I don't see anything recognizable as a disease or insect damage. It looks like random blemishes, nothing I would be concerned about. The plants appear healthy. A disease or insect damage would not be uniform across different types of plants. It would target certain ones.

Jim
granite
15 years ago
Be careful about watering in the middle of the day. The begonia leaves look like they maybe got watered in the heat of the day and then the water pooled in the leaves and "cooked" it.
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digdirt2
15 years ago
I would agree that what you are seeing is most likely damage from wet leaves exposed to bright sun - called sun scald or sun scorch. One reason to avoid overhead watering. ;) I can't see anything in your photos to be overly concerned with. But it looks like your begonias - which prefer partial shade - are also getting too much sun. ;)

Dave
electronym
Original Author
15 years ago
Thanks so much for the help. I'm feeling much better now. I realized after planting them that the begonias would have liked to have a bit more shade, but this is my first non-porch-bound attempt at growing vegetables, and I was excited to find a spot that gets a good 11 hours of direct sunlight.
I did water the begonias once in the middle of the day, but I've been careful to do it first thing in the morning since that time. I'm also trying my best to get the water in below the leaves, but it's difficult with such small plants.

Again, thanks for the help and I'll keep you updated if anything changes. Looking forward to my first tomato harvest in a week or so. :)
planter_geek
15 years ago
I wish I could see your pictures to see if they are the same white spots I've been having on my huge ground vine plants that produce melons, pumpkins, etc. What other people have said sounds like some of the same symptoms mine has had. What happened to the pictures???? They aren't showing up.
electronym
Original Author
15 years ago
Not sure why you can't see them. They still show up for me, and I'm on a different computer than the one I originally posted from. They're hosted on picasaweb if you have some sort of remote-image-blocking thing going on.

Anyway, to follow up, the spots have not increased or spread at all since last night - in fact most of them are gone, so I'm willing to write it off as just some junk in the air or in the water from the last time they got watered.
jimster
15 years ago
Hey, I don't have perfect complexion either. Do you? :-)

Jim

Newbie gardener concerned about white spots (PICS)

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jimster

granite

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