Garden Pests and Diseases: My Brugs have some issues this year..., 1 by Gitagal

Gitagal wrote:
Dr. John,

I am here again to pick your brain.....Nothing super serious--(????she says...)
bit still prevalent since mid-end of summer.

I have three Brugs growing in BIG pots. One in a smaller pot in the middle of my back yard.
This one was the first to have something weird going on. The growing ends
of the stems lost all foliage and looked like a naked, hard, Asparagus tip.
Sprayed with that Oil concoction (see lower) and it stopped and it, immediately,
grew new, healthy leaves.

Two of the bigger ones are side by side by my shed--and it is on these I saw something else.
On my "Maya"--leaves were yellowing and dropping like flies every day.

I looked at the back sides of the fallen leaves--and there was nothing.
Eventually--I looked again on the still green leaves and it was hard to see
anything wrong--except I sawsome White Flies. They were there. Not many...

Sprayed all the leaf-backs with an organic oil/garlic/peppermint based
insecticide/miticide/fungiside and it worked for a while.
(Check out "Pharm Solutions, Inc".). The spray I had was "Veggie Pharm".
They make all kinds of sprays. I picked this one up at a DJ Liquidators place.
Weird color (Apricot) you have to shake it (gently) to mix all the oils...

Then, after a while--the Brug next to the Maya started yellowing out leave as well.
I would pick them off every day and dispose of them. By now--both Brugs had a lot of
bare stems but the tops kept growing new leaves which were OK. Buds forming, etc...

A week ago--I sprayed them all with a good dose of Neem. It was a bit old--
so i am not sure if it helped.

The third brug--my Dr. Seuss, which was a good distance away from the other two--was doing OK.
It is really big and wide--and has been healthy with no issues all along.
Then--about 2 weeks ago--I noticed a slight leaf-curl at most of the growing tips.
Nothing I could see, with my eyes, on the backs of them either.
I immediately thought of Thrips--but, again, there was nothing visible on tops or bottoms,
and the very growing tips were doing OK.

Now the Dr. S. is also yellowing leaves. I drenched them all with Neem, but it did not totally
eliminate it.

What do you think? I will post pictures....may take two Posts....

And--thank you again. Gita

1--Here is the odd, naked branch tips on the smaller potted one in my back yard.
This immediately went away after I sprayed the plant with the "Veggie Pharm" solution.

2--Here is my small "Maya" with all the leaves dropping off. These all fell in one day.

3--Here are some pictures on the Dr. Seuss--the one with the leaves curling.
Not really all curled, but one, or both of the edges, had a definite deformity to them.
Also a bit deformed--puckered.

4--More leaves--I tried to find some that would show the curling....

5--Here are some of the yellowed leaves that are falling off....
Nothing at all visible on their backs....It is like, whatever the issue is, is making the
leaves yellow--and the stems of them to let go and fall off...

What do you think is going on? It seems to be 2 different problems--
the blunted stems being one.

Thanks again----Sorry this is really long--again..... Gita