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Need help identifying spots on basil

13 years ago

Hi all,

I've been noticing that some of my container plants are dying (chiefly basil, but also parsley and an early jalapeno plant), apparently from spots on the leaves. The spots are clear, grey, and brown, and in the worse cases, the top and bottom of the leaf are covered in black and white specks, some of which I also see in the soil. Eventually, the leaves fall off. The disease seems to be spreading from container to container.

See the attached link (an imageshack picture of a diseased plant).

I see some small insects buzzing around my plants, which I believe are fungus gnats (?), but I'm not sure if they can cause this. Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Matt

Here is a link that might be useful:

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Comments (3)

taz6122
13 years ago
What kind of soil did you use?
calliope
13 years ago
No fungus gnats won't cause this kind of damage. I don't believe it's a disease or soil related either. It looks typical of the damage caused by chafing/rasping insects. The 'spots' start out light or clear because the tissue containing the chlorophyll is damaged. It turns brown upon tissue death.
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looks too big for a single bug .. and if there were a million of them ... you would find them is this in a bright window.. sun.. and could a drop of water have lingered on it??? or some other fairly liquid substance ... does the injury look to be on the front.. or back of the leaf??? ken
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I’m glad to hear your opinion Jane. From all appearances the roots look ok, so I think I’ll dive into repotting and then isolation. I do like an occasional challenge! I always enjoy your posts. I’m a NY born, S FL raised girl and got my start in orchids there when I was very young. Grew them outside on trees, etc. many many years ago. Moved to N FL then back south again to Ft. Lauderdale. Probably had close to 50 until hurricane Wilma wiped us out in 2005 and we had 3 storms go through that season. We moved to N. GA in 2010 after retirement and I slowly started acquiring phals. Hubby built on a sunroom for me to winter them but now I keep them in all year and they do great! I just have 10 and 1 paph. Funny I couldn’t grow a Phal to save my life when in FL! Ha! ;-) I do miss growing orchids of all kinds outdoors all year long. Thanks!
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why would you need a humidifier ... do you have a forced air furnace that runs 8 hours a day??? .. like mine seems to in my MI??? how about you let it adjust to the stress of moving it indoors .. make sure it gets enough proper light ... water properly ... and lets see what happens .. try not to heap stress upon stress upon stress... if it were mine.. and it was just a leaf or two.. i would just snip them off.. i would not stress it by spraying some kind of goos on it .... ken ps: i would suggest its pretty deep in that pot.. but i wont.. because i dont want you stressing it by repotting it right now ... lol.. so ignore that .. lol ... but keep it in mind for a month before it can go back outside .. so it will settle down and get over that stress before you stress it putting it outside ... and dont foget to harden it off to outdoor light when it goes outside.. so you dont stress it then ... i hope you note the key word in all that .. lol ...
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rhizo_1 (North AL) zone 7
13 years ago
Looks like thrip damage to me, and the little flying things could be them.

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