Speckled, yellowing, dying leaves: Potato, Tomato.... Monarda?

[joz]

Problem: Bugs. Caterpillars. Weeeee caterpillars. I'm sorta of the philosophy that the plants can likely survive this with minimal leaf loss. I can certainly foliar feed some fish emulsion to shore up their resilience.

If I poof a damp plant with DE (I've got a thing that's like a sprayer, but for powder, so instead of spraying it, it's poofing, right?), will it stick and dry onto the plant? Will the wee caterpillars HATE it?

Bigger Problem: Speckled Yellowing Leaves, some lesions. It's hard to tell what's a caterpillar hole and what's a proper lesion, but... well, I have pictures.
I don't know if pulling the leaves will stall the problem, or if the plants just Need To Go. Of course I'd always rather preserve the other plants and sacrifice one or two. But these were EXPENSIVE tomatoes!


The Potato Planter Patch:

Spots and yellow! This is a yellow leaf with caterpillar (or maybe slug... I have those too) holes.

Dead Leaves/Branches?! ONO!

So I'm going to pull the entire plant, with the dead leaves on. But then it got worse.

I found yellowing dark speckles on my ONLY Dagma's Perfection Tomato!!! (lesson learned: 2 of EVERYTHING) No holes in this leaf.

And a slightly different yellowing speckly thing going on on one of my Marianna's Peace tomatoes:

I've never seen a leafminer throw such a brown/yellowing spot. Unless that's a particularly diseased leafminer.

All affected leaves/branches have been removed from the garden completely.

Oh, right... the Monarda! I get that the potatoes and tomatoes might be similarly affected, but this threw me.

And, well, the weeds outside the beds look like they may have similar lesions

Given the environment I'm dealing with, sometimes I wonder if the path shouldn't be 'round the outside of the garden, to separate it from my neighbors (the fence is ~4' tall):

 

[digitS']

Well, Joz, if it was my garden I'd guess that flea beetles are the problem with most of the holes in leaves. Their damage is often described as "shot holes." They are very tiny and disappear when approached.

Flea beetles aren't the most serious pests for tomatoes and peppers, usually. They damage and interfere with the development of the plants but don't usually kill anything. Some extension websites don't even list them as "agricultural pests." It must have to do with where the agriculture is in the country.

Lower leaves yellow and, even if they don't, probably have very little benefit to the plant as they age. It isn't a sure fire sign of disease when they do that. There are plenty of diseases, of course and probably any insect can act as a vector for disease. That is a great misfortune for gardeners.

A perimeter path for the garden always seemed to me to be a good idea. A fence will help with only some pests.

Steve

 

[annageckos]

Sixth photo down, I think I see a harlequin bug. I had them last year, but I don't remember them going after my tomatoes or potatoes. Though they suck the juices, not chew on the plants. They were horrible here last year, I ended up having to pull some of my veggies and flowers.

 

[vfem]

Maybe this link will help...

http://occupymonsanto360.org/2013/04/16/gardening-tomatoes-organically-a-quick-guide/

I think it may be a combination of bugs/mites and a fungal attack

 

[joz]

We've had rather a lot of rain lately.

I know I've seen some flea beetles, but not TONS. Not like last year. Not yet.
I still have some Spinosad I can spray, tho I'd prefer not to, if the plants can handle the damage.

If the yellowing leaves are from insect damage or age (the tomatoes shouldn't yellow for weeks yet, but I don't know the duration of the Life Cycle of the Potato), I'm OK with that. I just don't want to lose everything to some kind of blight.

Slugs have been a problem as well. Every seed I planted a few weeks ago sprouted into a slug buffet. Nothing survived. I've got seeds started in cups on the porch (Painters are FINALLY DONE WITH THE PORCH! HALLELUJAH!) to transplant. Coco coir: Awesome for seed starting. Jiffy Mix: hydrophobic crap.

 

[desertlady]

I was told not to water on tomato leaves, that give them "water burns." Ive never seen a pest on my plants yet!! Maybe trim the leaves back and hope it will grow heathy.

 

[baymule]

Could the yellow leaves be an indication of a mineral deficiency? Some of the plants in my garden were yellow looking, so I top dressed with a mix of chicken compost, bone meal and Job's plant food for vegetables. In a week or two, they greened right up and took off growing. Just a thought.