Leaf Damage On Annabelle Hydrangea

/Leaf Damage On Annabelle Hydrangea/

Leaf Damage On Annabelle Hydrangea

In this photo it looks like the damage is mostly on the bottom leaves near the ground, is that true? If so, that argues for something different that's going on in that area, such as the plant getting hit with a sprinkler that's watering a nearby lawn, for example. But whether the damage is seen just near the ground, or over the entire plant, there are several possible causes and you can think about what's most likely for your plant. (After the list we've also given you a recommended course of action even if you can't figure out what has caused this damage.)
1. Look under the leaves to see if there are small, green larvae (they look like worms) eating the tissue under the leaves. There are green "fruit worms" that sometimes eat the underside of hydrangea leaves, which causes the top tissues to brown and die. If you see any green larvae either pick them off and smash them, or spray the underside of the foliage with a product containing spinosad, an organic treatment that kills a wide range of larvae when eaten.
2. Fungus: the most common cause of leaf-spot on plants is a wide range of fungi. This is especially likely if parts of this plant are getting hit with water on a frequent basis, either by hand watering with a hose or a sprinkler system. Picking off the worst of the leaves and watering deeply less often (once a week) in the AM so that foliage has a chance to dry usually solves the problem. The good news is that leaf-spot fungus is usually just a cosmetic issue and doesn't kill plants.
3. Contact damage. This type of damage happens if foliage gets hit with something that kills the leaf tissues when it lands. Hot water from a sun-heated hose, liquid fertilizer mixed too strongly, cleaning products used to wash decks or windows, herbicides or drift from other garden products can all damage foliage. If this was the cause the damage won't continue unless what caused the problem also continues.

No matter which of these has caused your situation, picking off the worst looking leaves will help you to determine if the problem is still going on and will improve the look of the plant. If you suspect a fungal leaf spot you can use one of the organic fungicides such as Serenade, Actinovate or Sulfur, but that won't cure tissues that are already infected, it will only help to protect any undamaged leaves.

Know that most insects and diseases are very host-specific, so you don't have to worry that this is something that will "spread to everything else in the yard", which is understandably a common concern but not likely to happen.

By | 2015-11-29T04:15:22-08:00 November 29th, 2015|Shrubs|0 Comments
Read More

Septoria Leaf Spot Or Early Blight

This could be septoria leaf spot but it could also be Early Blight. Both are fungal. Early blight typically starts at the bottom of the plant and works up. Both are fungal. Septoria leaf spot usually begins in damp, cool weather and one strategy to beat it is to plant your tomatoes LATER in the season when it's warmer. Even if you solorize your soil you won't get rid of either of these. You must learn to cope with them as follows.

The way we "dance with tomato fungi" is this: When planting, remove any leaves that touch the soil so that the only place the plant makes contact with dirt is at the stem. Mulch around the plants immediately with the mulching material of your choice. That is immediately after planting so that any spores in the soil won't be able to get splashed on your plants when you water or it rains. Spray weekly with one of the bacteria-based, organic fungicides. Ask at your local garden center to see which ones they carry. Use these every week according to directions. Pick off the worst of the spotted leaves as they happen and throw away. Don't let any dropped foliage or fruit remain in the garden. Water only in the morning and deeply less often - watering every four or five days deeply will allow the foliage to be dry most of the time.

The most early blight resistant varieties are Mountain Magic and Mountain Merit. Heirloom tomatoes always get diseased before hybrids, so look for hybrid plants.

By | 2015-11-29T02:34:48-08:00 November 29th, 2015|Plant Diseases|0 Comments
Read More

Mealybugs On Hibiscus

Mealy bugs are often a problem on hibiscus brought in from the outside for the winter. The plants are stressed from going from a high light situation to a low light one even though it is a sunroom, the light is not as bright and not as long during the winter. Keep it away from any other plants you may have in the house because they will spread.
Remove all flowers that may be blooming as well as any buds because mealy bugs and aphids prefer them.You can dab the with a cotton swab dipped in rubbng alcohol. That will remove their waxy protective coating. You will also find them on the undersides of the leaves as well. We suggest you go to the local garden center and purchase an insecticide safe for hibiscus indoors. It may give you control, not eradication and it appears you have a good infestation. Please do not use home remedies since they can actually cause more harm than good.When using the insecticide, make sure the plant is not in direct sun and was watered at least 12 hours prior to the application. Read and follow directions exactly. Monitor the plant every few days to see if there are any new mealybugs and remove again with rubbing alcohol. If you are not able to control, the best thing is to just pitch the plant and purchase a new one in the spring.
Whenever you bring a plant in for the winters, you should check it out for a couple of weeks in a room removed from others in case there are any hitchhikers. If you do keep the plant, keep the temperatures cool, about 60 degrees which will slow down any insect growth. Keep flower buds off the entire winter and do not fertilize again until April. You should cut the branch back by at least 1/3. It will keep the plant from getting leggy. Good luck!

By | 2015-11-13T20:33:41-08:00 November 28th, 2015|Plant Pests|0 Comments
Read More

Chewing Damage

Its hard to say for certain with the amount of damage we see because several different organisms can chew plant parts; usually their damage is characteristic of the organism, which helps to narrow it down. It could either be snails/slugs, so look for slime trails on soil and leaves. Look for "worms" (caterpillars, or caterpillar-like organisms), and small beetles (may have black spots or stripes). The snail/slugs hide in the daytime so you have to look for them in their shaded/moist hiding places during the day, or look for them coming out to feed at dawn and dusk; pick them and dispose of them in a sealed bag. Worms can be disposed of in the same way, and you want to look for them on the underside of the leaves (sometimes stems) and look closely as they may blend in with the plant color, and usually leave droppings on the leaves/soil underneath them. Beetles will come and go so their harder to catch, but you can keep an eye out. If damage continues to get worse, you'll know the organism is still around, but if it doesn't progress at all, you'll know its come and gone and you don't need to do anything, except continue to observe and examine your plants once a week or more. Snail/slug baits don't work well unless they are applied exactly right and can be toxic to other organisms if you don't get the right stuff so we recommend just picking them. Caterpillars, when numerous can be controlled with a product that contains (Bt) but you can pick them too if not too many.

By | 2017-09-11T15:49:33-07:00 November 28th, 2015|Plant Pests|0 Comments
Read More

Chewing Insect

The problem with chewing insects such as bug larvae or earwigs, grasshoppers, beetles, caterpillars (too numerous to name) etc. is they move about and often are difficult to spot among the foliage, but if there are black dots on the foliage, it is the excrement of chewing insects. Chewing insects can be large enough to see with the naked eye, but they can be red, orange, green, brown, black, etc. so look closely and pluck off any you see and dispose in a bucket of soapy water as long as the infestation is not too extensive. The problem with earwigs is that they are nocturnal and seek refuge in dark, moist areas during the day so spotting them is difficult. You are correct, that earwigs favorite food is newly emerging plants with tender foliage as well as flower buds. A simple method to trap them is to roll up a moistened newspaper in the late afternoon by your plants (earwigs are attracted to warm, dark, moist areas for cover and for their habitat) and dispose of the newspaper and earwigs in the trash in the morning or shake the earwigs out into a pail of soapy water. If it is extensive, you can spray with an organic control for chewing insects recommended by your local garden center such as Bt (Bt is a contact spray only) or Spinosad (7-10 day residual), but follow application directions. Also show some of these leaves or this photo to a horticulturist at your local garden center for confirmation of the problem as well as recommendations for control but make sure it is formulated for your plants.

By | 2015-11-28T11:07:46-08:00 November 28th, 2015|Plant Pests|0 Comments
Read More

Euonymous Branch Demise

Your bush looks like a Euonymous, an evergreen bush common in your area, but we can't be sure without a close up of the leaves. Regardless of the type of bush it is, it clearly has suffered damage to several branches, either from mechanical injury, a disease process, or from some type of critter.

We recommend removing the dead branches as far as they extend into the base of the shrub. You'll want to closely inspect both the damaged branches and the soil around the base of the shrub to try to determine what may have caused the branches to die.

Individual branches on any plant can suffer and even die from the weight of heavy snow. Often the damage isn't seen until mid-late spring. Look for bent and splintered branches.

Also look for signs of critter damage such as nests, chewing marks on the dead branches, etc., so you can deal with the offending critter(s) before more branch damage occurs. Sometimes voles, small field mice, get into these shrubs and chew the outer layer of the branches, cutting off the water supply. They leave trails or furrows in the soil at the base of the plant. You'll want to contact your local extension agency for control information if you see critter damage. Here's a link to their website - http://extension.usu.edu/saltlake/

If you don't see evidence of the above, check the dead branches for swollen areas called galls. These are present when an insect or bacteria has entered the branch. They also cut off water supply to the branch. Here's a link to a website with more information, including pictures of galls, so you'll know what to look for - http://www.clemson.edu/extension/hgic/pests/plant_pests/shrubs/hgic2054.html
If you find galls, remove the branch, including the portion with the gall. Whatever tools you use to remove the dead branches, don't use those tools on any other plants, including this one, until you have sanitized them by wiping them with rubbing alcohol in case their is a disease process that could be spread to other plants via your pruners.

Your decision as to whether to remove just the affected branches and wait for regrowth or remove the entire shrub is somewhat based on determining the source of the damage. If it's bacterial, resulting in galls, the same infection can occur on a new similar shrub. If all of this seems overwhelming and a lot of work, you can simply remove an affected branch back to the base of the shrub and take to a local nursery or to your extension agency for a more thorough examination and suggestions on removing the entire shrub vs removing just the affected branches.

By | 2015-11-28T06:27:54-08:00 November 28th, 2015|Plant Diseases|0 Comments
Read More

Orchid Issues

There are a few things going on here, but the bottom line is you're right, the plant still has hope for the future!
1. Orchid flowers usually last about a month, sometimes a bit longer from bud to the finish of flowering, so this one wasn't unusual in that regard. No flowers last forever, even orchids, which are among the longest flowering of plants.
2. When you have an orchid in the house, the first thing to do is to remove that moss that they put over the top of the pot around the plant. This is done for decorative purposes and isn't necessarily good for the plant. It often keeps the plant too wet or damp around the top, and can lead to rot. So take that away now.
3. Once an orchid flower fades you can leave the stem where the flowers were - some orchids will grow a new flower spike from lower on that stem, even a few months later. Others do not, but basically you can't go wrong by leaving it there until it turns yellow or brown and is clearly dying off. Once you see that, clip it down to near the foliage.
4. Keep the plant in a bright window but not in direct sun. An Eastern window is ideal if you have it. We don't see a window in this photo, and if the plant isn't in the light it won't live, so move it next to a window - even a western or northern-facing window is better than no window at all. Plants make their food out of light (photosynthesis) so this is really important.
5. Water the plant about twice a week or every five days by putting it in the sink and running some water over it - but don't keep it in a container that doesn't drain. The decorative box we see that it's in now might be keeping too much moisture around the roots and causing them to rot. If your house is cool you could even water it only every six days... do not let the pot that it's in sit in water for any length of time. Just water it well for at least a minute, let that water drain out into the sink, and then replace the plant in the window where it will get light. You can put it on a saucer to catch any drips.
6. Use an orchid fertilizer according to directions.

By | 2015-11-28T05:14:58-08:00 November 28th, 2015|House Plants|0 Comments
Read More

Dying Thuga

These appear to be arborvitaes although the photo is so dark it's hard to be completely sure. These also look like plants that were recently put into the ground, yes? There can be several reasons plants get brown and die, and from a photo alone it's impossible to tell which reason has caused your plants to do this, but here are a few things that come to mind immediately:
1. These look like they were planted above ground level. It almost looks like a small berm was raised in order to give these plants a few more inches in height from the get-go, and this actually makes the plants roots dry out faster. The most common cause of a plant browning like this is too little water during the first and second year after planting, and raising up a mound to plant in or on doesn't help.
2. If these plants weren't watered deeply (using a soaker hose or sprinkler once a week for about two hours) the cause was probably drying out. Hand watering is never enough, especially when the ground slopes away from the plants as it appears to here. Automatic sprinkler systems that only come on for 15 or 20 minutes are also not enough as they only water the top three inches of the soil.
3. Was the burlap removed completely from the root balls if these were balled-and-burlaped plants? Burlap left on the rootball contribute to root-drying and early death of plants. Always take all burlap, rope, and wire cages off.
4. Fertilizer burn can also look like a plant has dried out. If the plants were given a synthetic fertilizer at too high a concentration, that would contribute to the death of plants.

There are so many plants here and they are so close together that even if you removed the dead ones, and pruned out dry branches from the others, the remaining plants might make it and become a good screen. But you'll need to add more soil so that they aren't on such a narrow ridge, mulch with some composted manure topped by bark mulch to hold water in the soil, and water them deeply once a week if it doesn't rain. Deep soaking less often is always better than a little every day.

By | 2015-11-28T03:07:36-08:00 November 28th, 2015|Shrubs|0 Comments
Read More

Dying Burning Bush

We're assuming you're worried about the die back on the burning bush but not the shrub as a pest, yes? (This shrub is classified as a pest because it self-seeds and chokes out native plants. It is now illegal to sell in Massachusetts for this reason.) So we'll address the die back here:
While it is impossible to tell from a photograph what has caused a normally hardy plant to have die back as we see in this picture, some of the possibilities are as follows.
1. Too dry. This seems unlikely for your plant as the plants that are on the ground are still green, but it's something that might be a part of the problem.
2. Physical contact with something that killed the leaves such as hot water from a sun-heated hose, drift from herbicide sprayed on other areas, cleaning products such as deck or house washing, liquid fertilizer that's too strong and sprayed on leaves, other garden products that made the plant sensitive to sunburn.
3. Physical injury such as damage from a string trimmer that cut the bark.
4. Borer that got into the main stem - check for holes.
5. Vascular disease - root rot fungi, bacteria etc. This plant isn't prone to such diseases but it is a possibility.

Sometimes a combination of one or more of these will be what does a plant in. If the plant is mostly dead, take it out and use this as an opportunity to plant something more interesting than a burning bush. The Blue Shadow Fothergilla, for example, has white flowers in early spring, bluish leaves all summer and fantastic fall color!

By | 2015-11-27T22:54:35-08:00 November 27th, 2015|Shrubs|0 Comments
Read More

Bitter Lettuce

Bitter lettuce is often the result of summer heat. Lettuce is known as a cool season vegetable. When temperatures rise, the plant snaps into maturation mode and bolts, that is, sends out a stalk and flowers. It’s during this process that bitter lettuce is produced. This is a natural process that can’t be stopped, but it isn’t the only answer to what makes lettuce bitter.

Too little water can cause bitter lettuce. Those large flat leaves need a large amount of water to remain full and sweet. Brown leaf edges are a sure sign that you lettuce is thirsty either from lack of water or root damage from close cultivation. Water regularly and well. Don’t let the bed become bone dry.

Another answer to why does lettuce turn bitter is nutrition. Lettuce needs to grow fast. Without proper nutrients, growth becomes stunted and bitter tasting lettuce is the result. Fertilize regularly, but don’t get carried away. Some studies suggest that bitter lettuce can also be the result of too much nitrogen.

Lastly, aster yellows phytoplasma, commonly called aster yellows, is a disease that can cause bitter lettuce. With this infection, the interior leaves lose color and the outer leaves become stunted. The whole plant can become deformed.Most likely, your bitter lettuce is the result of the maturation process and there’s no way you can completely stop Mother Nature, but there are ways you can delay the result.

Mulch your lettuce to keep the roots cool and fool the plant into thinking its still spring. Interplant your lettuce with taller crops to provide shade as the weather warms. Succession planting will also help extend the season.

If you think nitrogen might be the cause of your bitter tasting lettuce, add a small amount of wood ash to your soil.

Some people have found it helpful to soak their bitter lettuce prior to using. If you would like to give this a try, separate the lettuce leaves, put them in a bowl of cold water and add a small amount of baking soda. Let them soak about 5 to 10 minutes, rinse thoroughly in cold water and then soak them again for a few more minutes. Drain and use.

You can also try refrigerating the bitter lettuce for 24-48 hours before serving.

By | 2017-09-11T15:49:33-07:00 November 27th, 2015|Vegetable Plants|0 Comments
Read More