Last fall I built a couple of raised beds in front of my house in which I placed ten Japanese Holly shrubs. I built the retaining walls of the beds with concrete blocks on a concrete foundation. I filled the beds with screened topsoil brought in from a local (Raleigh, NC) supplier. The holly plants seemed to be doing very well until a few weeks ago when I noticed the leaves on one of the shrubs were turning brown and curling. This symptom is now becoming apparent on shrubs adjacent to the worst affected plant. The bed that contains the sick plants is pretty shallow and therefore, of my two beds, is probably the most affected by lime leached from the new concrete and mortar from the bed walls. I will try the acid and iron treatment recommended in earlier postings. I intend to post results of the treatment in a future posting.

Dang. Heartbreaking to see your pictures. Hope you can nurse them back. I was thinking overspray too, but I have a similar problem with leaf curl but no drying. I believe I used too much compost. The man at the nursery suggested too much water; we have had a lot of rain lately. Also, he said to cultivate around the plants to release any gasses that may be trapped in the soil. I'll try anything, but it's too soon to tell. Wish I had more info for you.

looks like vermiculite.. but if you want my 2 cents on growing media (for seeding or just potted plants, personally, i recommend coco coir for seed starting. around here i can get organic coco bricks for $13 and is enough to fill an entire wheel barrel. for a seed starting mix i add a bag of worm castings (or 3 parts coco, 1 part worm castings). the Walmart around here sell 5lb bag of worm castings for $4.50. the results is a mix that is superior to any premade potting/starting mix you can buy and total cost is less than 20 dollars.

Thanks, I'm pretty confident that it's far too hot here for late blight, but you are right that I should check. A cool spring in Sacramento is pretty relative, meaning we actually had 1/10 of an inch of rain in May and it's only gone over 100 twice. I think blight usually occurs in cooler, humid climates. Potato leaf wilt (Verticillium wilt) is what I suspect. What is a county extension? I have Google searched but can't quite figure it out. Do I just go to the office with some leaf samples?