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Camellia leaves cut in half - photo

15 years ago

Hi, I went out to my garden this morning and began to inspect my camellia shiro chan to see if its staying healthy. I came across three leaves which looked like they had been cut in half! Two (in photo) were straight across and one (left on the shrub) is at a diagonal. Does anybody know what this could be from? The leaves were not like that a couple weeks ago during my last inspection. Very odd!

Here is a link that might be useful: cut camellia leaf

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Comments (5)

luis_pr
15 years ago
Wow, I have not seen this in camellias. Some pests that do this will hide during the day so check out the leaves (including the underside) a couple of hours after nightfall. During the day, you can check the underside of leaves and the area around the main trunk. Remove the mulch and put it back when done looking/sifting. Lift any rocks to see what lurks below. Etc.
lucca
Original Author
15 years ago
Thank you for responding! I did an inspection today - though during daylight since my backyard is not well lit at night. I will go out there with a flashlight if it continues to be a puzzle. The plant seems very healthy on first glance - in fact it is getting ready to bloom a few more flowers and I thought it might be done for the season. HOWEVER, on closer inspection I found more cut leaves and holes in leaves where something is doing some midnight munching. I saw a couple of little brown spiders - and the other day I saw what looked like a white spider scamper out of it. I also came across some black aphids, but I am aware of that problem and have been giving it the diluted baby shampoo treatment for that. Could spiders be doing this? Is there something else I should be looking out for that may lead to more clues? Here are more photos...

Here is a link that might be useful: camellia leaf - id pest
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Dave in NoVA • N. Virginia • zone 7A
15 years ago
Looks like it's still in a pot. Could it be the wind knocked it over and you're just seeing physical damage from overly bent leaves?
luis_pr
15 years ago
No, I doubt spiders could have done this. They just seem awful small to eat a big ole piece of those leaves as your picture shows. Leaves damaged by spider mites do not look like that. I was thinking of something wormy looking instead. Spider mites can be controlled by a strong spray of water from the hose or with miticides.

Keep monitoring it as the problem maker might have left the grounds by now too.
lucca
Original Author
15 years ago
Thanks dave for the thought about it falling over. I don't think that's it as some of the leaves have holes just in the middle of the leaf which make it fairly apparent that something is using it as a tasty treat.
Luis, you may be right. It continued for another week and now seems to be maintaining. Plus we had some vicious winds here last week and maybe whatever it is was forced out. Will keep my fingers crossed that this is the case.
I do want to put it in the ground, but am afraid to kill it during transplant. I will do more research to make sure my soil is ok...

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