Buttercrunch Lettuce Damage

Leander, TX

Good day - I have various lettuces and greens that I am growing in the central Texas region. For some reason, the insects have really keened in on the "green" variety. Meaning, they tend to ignore the red lettuces or red romaine and LOVE the buttercrunch and collard greens. I sprayed all of my various greens with a diluted mixture of neem oil, tap water and a pinch of dish soap. For some reason, only my buttercrunch responded poorly. I believe this is from the neem oil and not a insect or other pest; but I could be wrong. Can anyone tell from the photos if this appears to be from using too strong of a concentration of neem oil on these lettuces? Additionally, it has not affected my buttercrunch lettuce located in another area of the garden; but were planted much later.

Thumbnail by sewellman78
Cleveland,GA/Atlanta, GA(Zone 7b)

While I see no obvious insect damage this looks like bacterial leaf spot.

Leander, TX

Thank you. It's just odd that it happened about 8-12 hours after I sprayed it with my neem oil mix; but perhaps it was purely coincidental. I have removed all of the infected leaves and brought the lettuce down to a few of smaller leaves at the core. Should I just pull up and start over at this point? These were in a planter that I could just replace if the bacteria is in fact in the soil at this point.

Cleveland,GA/Atlanta, GA(Zone 7b)

The best control is avoiding moisture on the leaves. Wet leaves coupled with cool temperatures are problematic. I used to grow Little Gem, buttercrunches and several loose leaf types but found it much more trouble than it's worth what with slugs, snails and wilts. The last straw was the turtle problem. Who knew lettuce was such an attractant?

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