Click below to listen to my 2 min. Garden Bite radio show: Plant diagnostics
What’s wrong with my plant? OH, such a loaded question. UGH, I think the toughest part of gardening is trying to figure out why a plant isn’t thriving! Sometimes it’s easy, like the photo below:
Much happier this year. PS, others know this plant by it’s more common name Coral Bells.
Sometimes, it’s not easy at all and could be a number of ailments at one time. Is it an insect, is it a disease, are my plants getting the nutrients they need. Enough water, too much water? Maybe this particular plant doesn’t like afternoon sun or one day you’re looking down on something that makes you go “eeewww, what’s that?”
While inspecting my butterfly garden I found this on the butterfly weed:
Learn more about Spittlebugs. They’re actually not a horrible problem but that doesn’t mean I want them!
I know enough to know that I will be forever learning. Especially when it comes to diagnostics. There are a number of good books and the University of Minnesota Extension has some diagnostics tools.
Aphids are on nearly everything and you can just give them a good blast of water to kill ‘em. I just ran my fingers along the stems of my monarda. Sounds gross but it’s effective!
Lady beetles love to eat aphids! NOT Asian beetles! Here is some great information from Plunkett’s pest control on these two bugs. Asian beetles are an invasive pest. Here’s a lot more on Beneficial Insects from the University of Minnesota Extension.
Sawflies are coming out now. They can be very icky looking! (technically speaking 😉 )
Before using any chemical, know what you’re dealing with. One time only 1 branch of a lilac bush was dying. ODD, I looked up possibilities. Then I crawled under the lilac and saw that “someone” had weed wacked the flexible plastic marker into the branch and over time, strangled it. Goes to show, ya just never know!
There are apps out there on diagnosing plant problems but I wouldn’t use them alone, it’s very easy to misdiagnose something and use the wrong method to handle the issue. Verify with another source.
