What's wrong with my potatoes?

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White_Hydrangea Aurora, CO(Zone 5a) Jul 25, 2006

Once they finally got started, my potato plants have been going great guns. They don't mind the heat, seem to flourish in it.

But in the last several days I've noticed a couple problems. I'd take a picture, but it's too dark now. On a couple adjacent plants, the new stems that have been sprouting have the leaves all furled up in a tight ball. They won't grow and unfurl. On some of the stems that have unfurled some, the leaves are still tight, and some are misshapened.

I've also noticed some holes in my potato plants, not the varmint's tearing holes on the edges of the leaf, but holes eaten in the middle and on the edge.

I looked on the stems and the undersides of the leaves. I couldn't see any bugs, webbing, discoloration. I only noticed a couple things out of the ordinary. On one leaf, there was something reddish that looked like a dried drop of blood. And I noticed a single insect on another plant. A 3/8" bug, cream/tan, with kind of a pointy snout, or front end, or whatever.

Okay, I also noticed a tan spider, which scared me, but I left him alone, since I figured he'd actually do me more good alive than dead.

Any ideas? Usually if it's an insect invasion the bugs aren't a bit shy, e.g., the flea beetles swarmed over my broccoli until it was black rather than green. (Incidentally, the flea beetles seem to be gone for some reason.)

I also noticed the same kind of holes in my zucchini leaves that are under the hot hats. Again, no sign of anything other than the holes.

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White_Hydrangea Aurora, CO(Zone 5a) Jul 26, 2006

I guess everyone's as clueless as I am.

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ecrane3 Dublin, CA(Zone 9a) Jul 26, 2006

Any chance you can get a picture of the damage? There are lots of things that can make holes in leaves but without seeing a picture it's hard to tell what it is. Same thing with the leaf curling thing--it might be easier to tell what's going on if there's a picture.

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wddr Hot Springs, VA Jul 27, 2006

Sometimes when I find leaves curled, I look inside and find a critter. There might be a web. Mostly I've seen that on trees, though. Can't hurt to look, though.

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