Sunday 26 June 2011

Signs of Trouble

I've been spotting a few problems arising in some of the plants in the garden during the last month or so. It always seems to happen as summer hits us - I guess warm, humid weather is the best time for pests and disease to thrive.

The sorrel is full of leaf-miners - you can see three wormy grubs inside the left here on the right. Apparently the parent - a flying insect of some sort - lays its eggs on the edge of the leaf, and the grubs burrow straight inside to feed.


It's not a problem I've had before, and there doesn't seem to be anything I can do except pick and destroy the affected leaves (or net the whole plants, but that ain't gonna happen). Any tips, anyone?


The French beans are well on their way now - I'll be picking the first this week - but several plants have discoloured leaves and I really have no idea what it is. Some look like this...


And some look like this...


The plants seem to be in great health otherwise, but it's hard to know whether this is the start of something bad, or nothing to worry about!

Some of the courgette leaves are yellowing badly - another problem I've never seen like this before.


And the 'Hundreds and Thousands' tomato plants have some very yellow leaves in the middle too, and some black spots. We surely haven't had the right conditions for blight yet. I'm thinking maybe it's some kind of leaf-spot...?


Can anyone can help identify any of these problems?

6 comments:

Sue Garrett said...

We have had one Smith period already so there have been blight conditions in our area.

Robert Brenchley said...

I don't think leaf miners will do any noticeable harm, they just look unsightly. I don't recognise the others though.

Martin and Amy said...

We've been having simlar problems too. With lots of leaf discolouration particularly on the courgettes and cucumbers. Hopefully somebody can help us both.

Martin :)

Sue Garrett said...

Is it just the older leaves that are turning yellow on the courgettes? Most years some of our courgette leaves yellow as they get older. Is the new growth OK?

Yellowing is often a sign of lack of nitrogen so if you are worried you could try feeding.

Nome said...

Wow, Smith period already? I'm a member of Blightwatch and I haven't had any alerts so I don't think we've had it round here.

It's only a couple of leaves on the courgettes. I guess they are older ones, but not all older growth is affected. Same with the toms. Funnily enough, the warm dry weather these last few days seems to have cleared it up a bit - I wonder if they were just a bit wet...?

Elliot Keller said...

Nice bblog post

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