Fungus? Bacteria? Nematodes? Help!

I really need some advice here. I've already lost some of my beloved plants to a mysterious ailment and others are starting to show signs of affliction. Please be patient if I give irrelevant information in my effort to be thorough.

In a little strip of garden by my stairs, the first sign of a problem was a petunia that wasn't growing or blooming while two other petunia plants, no more than a foot and a half away, where doing fine. Then the non-bloomer started to wilt and quickly died. When I pulled it up, it hardly had any roots and the few roots it had were limp. Next, a snapdragon beside it had the same fate, though it did bloom and it took longer to shrivel and die. I worried about nematodes, but there were no nodes on the roots.

Now a neighboring dianthus is starting to grow deformed leaves. On the other side of the stairs, a larkspur is looking a little sad, a couple of balsam/touch-me-nots and salvia are putting out new leaves that are tiny, light yellow and deformed. A few new leaves on a four o'clock also look deformed. A little farther away, a rose bush had one cane on the side nearest the problem area suddenly die. Other four o'clocks in the area are getting small, yellow spots on their leaves.

Strangely, some plants seem unaffected. An amaranthus that stands right by where the first dead petunia was, has seemed fine, though some new leaves might be a little deformed.

I live on the edge of some woods in the mountains in New York State, so it is somewhat cool and damp, and I might have been over watering.

Slugs have been a big problem, so I have used slug bait (metaldehyde) around these plants, but I have used it more heavily in other parts of the garden with no bad effects.

I have sprayed broadleaf killer on my lawn, and wonder if some drift might have reached them, though I tried to be careful.

I hear that the people who lived here before me (last summer) smoked on the porch, throwing cigarette butts everywhere -- which would include the stair area. I've recently read that some plant viruses are carried by cigarette tobacco.

Yesterday, I bought acephate (systemic insect control), thinking that it might kill tiny parasites in the soil, if that was the problem. I also bought daconil, a broad-range fungicide.

I haven't used either yet, but I will probably go ahead with the daconil later today or tomorrow.

Does anyone have any ideas? My garden is just starting to look good, with new blooms everyday. I will be devastated if some plague destroys it.

Odds are your weed killer is #1 problem..

i agree, even a little tiny drop could cause these problems, try using the paint-on kind in future, or make sure there's not even a tiny breeze. If thats what it is, there's no cure i'm afraid, you could try cutting the plants down to soil level, and they may come back if the roots aren't affected.

lil :(

Thanks for your input ....

*sob*sob*sniffle* I was only trying to help my lawn.

I does make sense that it was drift, and that reassures me a bit that the unaffected plants are not going to eventually fall to a mysterious plague.

I should take comfort in how well the rest are doing.

I think some of the symptoms can't be attributed to the lawn treatment, but I guess I can only hang tough/wait-and-see.

If you know what weed killer it was, READ the label

Weed-B-Gone says do not plant veggies for 2 years after application.


Byron

Paris
The weed killer will make the leaves spot and look deformed. It will also cause the leaves to yellow andsometimes the whole plant will die. The other problem you describe sounds like pythium. It is caused by stress (i.e. too dry, too wet, weed killer damage, ph too high/low) The daconil should help with it. Also, one other question: are there white stringy fungusy looking things on the top of the soil and on the lower stems? Are there little pink bead/seed like spores at the place where the stem enters the soil? If so this could be southern Blight. The best way to get rid of it is to use high nitrogen fertilizer and grow it to death. (the fungus)
Cala

Thanks for your tips, Cala. I think you are right on two counts: a little weed killer drift, and too much water. I have a tendency to pamper plants too much, and, when I lived in the South, that wasn't a problem, because the warm weather kept things growing fast enough to benefit from all my attention. Up here in the frigid North, when I watered them, they stayed wet for days. I think that some kind of bacteria or fungus was growing in the soil. When I gave the soil a chance to dry between waterings, much of the problem went away.

I didn't see the symptoms of Southern blight -- though anything Southern would have been welcome at this point!

My new problems are leafminers and spider mites. I dusted with a mix of carbaryl and permethrin, and I'm hoping that will do it, though I know those guys are hard to eradicate entirely. It's always a constant struggle when either of those problems arise. One book suggested acephate, but I don't want to use that because I grow basil, oregano, tomatoes and parsley among my flowering plants.

This message was edited Thursday, Aug 2nd 10:52 PM

Paris
I usually just pick off the leaves affected with leafminers. I then put them in a plastic baggie and throw them in the trash. By the time you see the miner lines, they have usually already hatched and flown away anyway.
For the Spidermites, mix alcohol and water half and half and spray. Don't spray in the hot sun. It will take several times, three days apart to break their cycle. NATURAL pyrethrin will also kill them and is harmless after 20 minutes. It breaks down very fast when exposed to air and light.
Cala

I appreciate this very useful information. I have started to understand some of these pests better. I saw some very tiny beetle-like insects that I thought might be mature leafminers, which is one of the reasons I dusted.

I've tried spraying for spider mites many times in the past and have found that they always pop right back up, if not on the same plant, then somewhere else. And, since I saw them in several places around the garden, I thought a full frontal attack was called for. If they were localized, I would still try a spritzing approach, but ... it seems to me that spider mites never are.

Thanks for the explanation of the difference between permethrin and pyrethrin. I know that permethrin is a synthetic form, but I have used them interchangeably. I will make more of an effort to stick with pyrethrins. That bit of info is especially useful with my animals; I have used pyrethrin and permethrin in dips to get rid of sarcoptic mites on them.

Paris
Also for the mites, use a neem product like Green Light rose Defense. Neem is an insect growth regulator and is safe to use on most anything. It won't hurt humans, but will kill any insect including the good ones, so use it wisely. Another product to use is Ultra Fine Oil, it smothers the mites and is very effective against thrips too.
It isn't poisonous, but will kill beneficials if sprayed directly on them. As with any other chemical, follow directions and don't use during the heat of the day to avoid burning the plants.
Cala

Mites like it dry.

Moisten the under sides of leave daily with water.

Byron

Yes Byron, I meant to mention that too. Glad someone did.
Cala

Thanks for your help. I can definitely do the moistening part. I can't find a single product that will promise to get rid of spider mites.

The initial problem I had has abated, and I'm doing my best to combat the leafminers and spider mites and following the advice here the best I can.

Here's a new problem: One spot in my garden, bordered by a rose bush, an amaranthus (love-lies-bleeding), a four o'clock and a snap dragon, is showing signs of a localized ... issue. I plant densely, as you can tell, but this spot is opening up because the foliage on some of the plants that face it is wilting, and the rose leaves and amaranthus are showing spots. On the amaranthus, it looks like rust. On the rose, the older leaves on the cane on the side near this spot are yellowing and showing the spots familiar to all rose growers. The rest of the rose is flourishing with new growth and buds. The snapdragon has one stem that flopped, though its head is pulling up a little. The four o'clock is not showing much of a problem, just dropping a few yellow leaves at the bottom of the bush, and it's growth has slowed in comparison with the other four o'clocks.

I suspect a fungus, but, since a cinnamon basil is nearby and a tomato plant is not too far away (neither of which have shown signs of ill health, by the way), I don't want to use anything that is counterindicated for edible plants.

I'm grateful for all the tutoring and good advice. Any recommendations to address this?