Herself’s Houston Garden

While I’d heard a fair bit about leaf miners my first run in with them came this fall on the tomatoes I planted.  You can easily identify the damage.  It looks like someone took a beige marker and drew a squiggly line all over several leaves.  They are especially fond of vegetable crops.

Leaf miners are actually fly larvea.  The feed between the top and bottom of your plant leaves on the inside of the leaf.  As you can imagine this makes it very difficult to do anything about them.

In all but extreme cases they do little damage to the crop and are not something to be overly concerned about.

leaf miner damage

Pteris ensiformus can reach 3′ in height and 3′ across when filled out.

Like most ferns it prefers light shade, high humidity and moist soil. But it will rot in the winter if the soil is too moist, so let it go a bit drier in the winter.

Slender brake will grow in light shade to full shade.

It does not like alkaline soil, so may not do well in Houston. I’m hoping anyhow.

It winters over just fine down here, this has been through two winters now.

I find it to be a very slow grower.

It is too warm in Houston for this plant in the summer, it died of heat stroke.

It is the most common ingredient in traditional herbal drinks in Taiwan, being high in phenolic antioxidants. ( I have not tried eating it, nor should you with out further research. ) It is also a plant that causes skin rashes on many people so be careful handling it.

Interestingly when planted in areas high in arsenic this plant uptakes far more arsenic than other plants yet shows no toxicity to the arsenic which makes it a great clean up plant, and gives you another reason not to munch on it with out further research. It is currently considered one of the best clean up plants for areas high in arsenic.

Propagate by dividing clumps.

Things to watch for on ferns:

Leaf scotch: appears during dry, windy weather.  Water frequently and deeply and provide what shade and shelter you can.

Scale: looks like small brown bumps on stems and underside of leaves.  I use orange oil.

Mealy bugs:  Looks like white fuzz on plants.  I just wash them off with a garden hose.

There’s been some talk on the Oleandar Page about leaf scorch spreading here from other areas on leaf hopper insects.

But this is a rose bush, in a bed with three other roses who are doing quite well. The markings of leaf scorch are distinctive. If you see a triangle of brown on the end, surrounded by yellow, that’s definitely leaf scorch. The discoloration of the leaf is caused by a lack of water reaching the edges of the leaf. The causes for the lack of water are not so easily identified. This plant looked like it was wilting a few days ago and the wilt has continued to progress.

We’ve had no serious rain for a long time here. ( see Rainfall map for Harris county to find your rainfall totals by day, week, month.. ) We’ve had 3.5″ of rain in 60 days most of it about 60 days ago. It has also been windier than normal here which also dries out the soil and plants. Leaf scorch usually appears during dry, windy spells.

Other causes of leaf scorch are a lack of roots on your plant from root rot ( over watering ) or lack of drainage ( clay soil ); from a wilt disease such as oak wilt; or from a bacteria spread by insects such as the leaf hopper.

If you see this symptom look for insect damage. Leaf hoppers are very tiny insects. Look on the underside of the leaf to find them. Damage from leaf hoppers on your roses will give the leaves a speckled appearance as if you had splattered yellow paint on your rose leaves. Or it may give your roses a tiny white dots all over the tops of the leaves. It will look like you spilled salt on the leaf. If you have the bacterial leaf scorch you will want to remove that plant as soon as possible to prevent the spread to your other plants. Other nearby plants should be sprayed on the underside of the leaves with an insecticide.

Since we have been in a dry, windy spell and the other three bushes in the bed are fine, I’m going to guess I just need to water more. If you are seeing this be sure you have a few inches of mulch around your plants to hold the water in the soil as long as possible.

More information
Leaf scorch of ornamental trees and shrubs
Bacterial leaf scorch

See also:
Tea Roses