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Florida Gardening

disease,fungus, insect?

15 years ago

Hello! I am a newbie gardener and have ran across my first problem so to speak. I have about 15 different fruits and veggies growing in my garden. I started my lettuce early in February and with the warmer weather, they have really taken off.

However, I notices some small holes in the leaves of the lettuce (Bibb) and also my pepper plants. I have included pictures to show. Is this a disease, fungus or insect causing it? If so, how do I treat? I would like to take a organic approach if possible.

Pepper Plant

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Bibb Lettuce (following two)

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Thank you in advance for advice

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Comments (6)

jukes23
Original Author
15 years ago
as a followup, I have an overhead irrigation system that is broken into two zones in the garden. During this dry season, I try to water the garden every other day for about 15 mins per zone.
solstice98
15 years ago
I'm not a vegetable expert, but with holes that round I would guess insect. Try an insecticidal soap spray and be sure to get the underside of the leaves. I know there are some organic ones safe to use on veggies - just check the labels closely. Or you can make your own spray. Someone is sure to post here with the recipe for making the soapy spray.

Kate
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Thanks for the replies. These were planted in the backyard toward the end of September. The soil that they are planted in is a relatively thick clay. The drainage in this area of the yard is poor. We confirmed the drainage issue when the holes for these plants were dug, and we filled some of them halfway with water. Where the drainage was really bad, the water barely budged after 24 hours. In other areas along the wall, the water had drained completely after 24 hours. As time passed after planting these, they did begin to get a shotgun hole appearance. This really only impacted the plants toward the middle of the row. It then began progressing where instead of just holes, larger portions of the leaves began turning red and becoming very jagged in appearance. This is now beginning to expand toward the other plants on the ends of the row. The watering protocol is we watered them heavily for the first two weeks. This was watering them for approx. 8 minutes a day. We then cut back the watering, as these are supposed to be relatively drought resistant plants. Combined with the poor draining clay, I have all but stopped watering the plants. We have had some recent rain, which I thought would be sufficient. As a first step, I'll follow Ken's advice and go check 6" down along the root mass to see if the impacted plants look like they've been getting enough moisture. I'll post a follow-up with the results. Thanks again.
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annafl
15 years ago
Hi Jukes!

I had some similar, mild damage to my veggies last year, and am seeing just a tiny bit so far in my lettuce. I saw some tiny, round-shelled snails in my garden, especially after it started raining. Look around under the plants and leaves after watering to see if you see any suspects and hand-pick them if you do. If your damage remains this mild, probably no need to treat with anything other than hand-picking. An organic garden allows for imperfections in order to use as little stuff as possible. If it starts affecting the yield of your crop significantly, and not just cosmetically, try some iron phosphate granules. These are organic and work well for snails and slugs. You might consider whether you are watering too much to be encouraging snails this early. Don't panic yet, try to figure out what, if any problem exists before treating.

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jonnys
15 years ago
Look for these little guys!
{{gwi:827855}}

They were eating my squash leaves first, so I got some neem to spray them down with. They haven't gone back to the squash, though they moved onto a few kinds of salvia and now onto a tomato. Im going to spray them all down this evening. Are there any plants, flowers/veg that dont like being treated with neem?
jukes23
Original Author
15 years ago
Hey Folks,

Thanks for the replies. Upon closer inspection (I was looking inside, around, underneath the plants and didnt see any snail or worms. I started looking at the leaves (another posted below) and it looks like some kind of disease. At first the hole looks like it was eaten, yet when you see the early stages, the area is a spot on the leaf, turns brown and then falls away. Disease of some sort maybe?
jukes23
Original Author
15 years ago
quick update. I pulled a piece of lettuce and after careful inspection, found tiny worms busy at work eating. They are whitish in color and really really tiny. Any thoughts in erradication?

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