correct.. take a blank piece of paper.. and shake the plant over it.. if you see little moving specks.. mites .. but.. inarticulate as i was.. do look for aphids ... i was adding a variable.. not dismissing hers ... prevention.. or spotting the problem earlier.. would have been nice.. make a note in your journal.. for next year ... but rhiz.. whats the cure??? .. if any??? mites on conifers can be blasted off with water ... same on veggies??? .. though i presume.. they will take a lot less blasting ... ken

Laura, the timing of your post was kind of eerie, because just today I noticed that quite a few of my plants were getting those flecked yellow leaves. Now after reading Andrew's comment too, I'm getting a bit freaked out...I still think the white fluffy stuff on the underside of your leaves could very well be whitefly...South Florida has been in the grip of an non-native whitefly scourge, and I have had them all over my plants for months--soooo frustrating. That said, when I saw all of the yellow leaves today, I started examining the plants carefully, and began to notice, in addition to the whitefly b.s. that I've had for an eternity, tiny, tiny black specks all over the ones that weren't looking good...some of those specks moved, some didn't... Identifying garden pests can actually be pretty difficult at times for us lay people, don't you think? I'm still not sure, as my plants look worse by the day...anyway, after looking around on the Internet, I'm concluding that it's some kind of thrips...which is scary because they do carry viruses. It's also hard to know what to do about it, which is even scarier. Apparently some thrips are predatory and prey on the OTHER thrips that eat your plants, as well as the spider mites...argh! In answer to your question about what I spray: I use neem oil once a week, Spray n Grow once a week. I've always tried to stay away from insecticides, but the whitefly has been so bad that I resorted to Ortho Flower and Vegetable, which contains acetamiprid--according to the Miami-Dade County website, this chemical has less harmful effect on the beneficial insects in the garden. (Bill from this forum suggested I use worm castings to get rid of the whitefly, which I did do, but I'm not sure how well that's been working.) Anyway, if you search the web for thrips, you can take a look and see for yourself...please update me and let me know what you decide on as a course of action!!! I'm a little worried! Greg

Same as what jean001a said, for the top photo. I had the same problem the last 2 years in Indiana. The damage appeared on my beautiful tomatoes and peppers (just before planting in early may) right after the yard-care people sprayed. It took over a month for the plants to recover, and not all did. Numerous other plants, and even a shrub, in the yard were damaged. We told them not to spray that any more, but the next year we had the same problem because we couldn't tell the city not to spray for weeds around the retention pond on the other side of the fence. In other words, I feel your pain. As to the bottom photo, did you recently transplant (probably not, judging by the size of the plants?), or perhaps not water sufficiently? Just a thought based on my limited experience. I'm wondering if jean001a knows if that pesticide carry-over can be residual in bagged potting soil? (OK, I see from what else you've written that could be the case). I had suspected that as a possibility. If so, it would be an awful lot of work to q.a. it prior to potting plants up, or using it for a raised bed.

Here's the whole pic. It's a recent transplant from a smaller pot so it's not possible that it's root bound yet, it's only been in this pot for maybe a few days, but the curl was in the previous pot as well. The potting mix I used is E.B. Stones Edna's Best. Here's what it contains(from their website) http://www.ebstone.org/products/eb-stone-organics "E.B. Stone Edna's Best Potting Soil now contains mycorrhizal fungi which are beneficial organisms that colonize the roots of most plants and become a natural extension of the root system. Contains: Aged Fir Bark, Sphagnum Peat Moss, Aged Redwood, Volcanic Pumice, Earthworm Castings, Washed Sand, Kelp Meal, Bat Guano, Feather Meal, Gypsum and Mycorrhizae.Oyster Shell Lime and Dolomite Lime are added as pH adjusters." Only 1 or 2 other plants out of 21 are experiencing this odd shriveled fold. No herbicide. I have used some insecticidal soap on my peppers probably within the last 30 days but I don't use it consistently, I don't really have any pests on any of my peppers. No aphids, no white flies, nothing. I do have spiders that will form little nests on the underside of these folds, but they are just regular spiders. Sometimes I'll leave them, sometime's I'll shoo them away. They are probably why I have no pests however.