Grow Your Own Magazine

Well I recently had a thread about a fungus, but recently i have found two inch long fuzzy catapilers. there is also like a web looking thing on some of the leaves, it also has a powdery mildew and has a lot of brown and yellow spots and the leaves that have it really bad are curled in and dry on the tips with alot of holes. i have recently pulled apart two leaves that were webbed together and came across a little lime green worm. some of the fruit also has what looks like a raised scab. Anyone know anything new. ohh i live in the united states in SD. if the region helps any. thanks

Erm...well...Botanist to be, you've got quite a few issues on that there one plant!!!

The powdery mildew is easily solveable - get thee to a garden centre and look for a fungicide which controls powdery mildew, or leave it be depending on how bad it is.

Catterpillars/worms - either pick them off and squish them one by one, or if you're happy to use sprays there are a number of insecticides available - look for a naturally based one first - bacillus thuringiensis is a bacterial pathogen - you may be able to get that in the US, or try looking for a Pyrethrin based one (natural source rather than synthetic). Alternatively there will no doubt be a selection of synthetic products available at the garden centre.

The brown spots - how big/small are they? what is the temperature at the moment? wet/dry? if its hot and dry, it could be spider mite, and this would explain the webbing too - but a picture would be best for diagnosis.

Hope this helps!

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