Newbie here from West Georgia area

Hi all, 

I'm a new gardener from West Atlanta area and am trying my first square foot garden. I've been stalking this site for some time now, gathering so much useful info! Finally introducing myself. I'm about to try a beer trap for some slugs. I sent the husband to the store for beer and he comes home with some blueberry Sweet Water beer. I hope they like it. I also have some sort of beetle munching on my bush bean leaves. I haven't gotten a picture of them yet, but they look like an ugly stepsister to the ladybug. So many more ailments to write about, but will now go try and get some slugs drunk off a sissy beer. Lol  I love this forum and appreciate any and all advice ya'll have shared to others so far  feel free to do the same for this newbie!

Welcome cgollahon, I am about 60 miles southeast of you in Brooks.

Nice to meet you! And glad to know someone in the same zone! Your profile picture is impressive!!

Also, is this where I can post pictures of what's ailing my plants? I'm new to forums in general.

Thanks, here is a link to my garden.  It has changed significantly since these pictures were taken.


https://squarefoot.forumotion.com/t17310-2014-sfg-in-brooks-ga

cgollahon26 wrote:Also, is this where I can post pictures of what's ailing my plants? I'm new to forums in general.

We love pictures of gardens and need pictures if you are trying to ask about a specific problem.  Welcome to the forum.

Kay

Hi Cgollahon.  Welcome!

Your ugly stepsister is probably the Mexican Bean Beetle.  Is it an orange-red?

AtlantaMarie wrote:Hi Cgollahon.  Welcome!

Your ugly stepsister is probably the Mexican Bean Beetle.  Is it an orange-red?

No, more like a tan/gray-ish color with black spots.  I didn't get a picture of one last night, unfortunately. Here is the damage to my bean leaves.  

 


I have this on my squash plants.  I ripped up 2 plants already and have 2 left.  The one in the pot is just fine, but this one in the bed has this on it:



Here's a picture of some cucumber leaves, towards the bottom. Not sure what this is caused from. 



I have noticed 1 or 2 spider webs, and this is the closest bug I could find that could be the problem?  Or what is this thing? It looks to be carrying around white fluff on its butt.  Probably some sort of larvae? 


And this critter instantly got smashed:


I'm just SOOOO over the pests and ailments! I'm not "organic", but I have refrained from putting any poison on them just yet.  What all would you recommend? Not sure if this matters, but I got a VERY late start this year and bought my cucumbers and squash plants instead of starting from seeds. I won't do that again, if I can help it. My 18 month old daughter keeps me busy......but I do what I can and would love to feed her veggies that I've grown. So far I've gotten 1 zucchini (from the plant in the pot) 1 green tomato, and 1 cucumber.  So sad. Suggestions please! Thanks in advance

Spots on the squash looks like downy mildew. Remove the affected leaves. Those old cuke leaves look gross, remove those too and things will be looking up. Spiders should be welcomed in the garden as they hunt down pest insects. Spider mites not so much.

Can you tell if that is a spider mite? What can I put on my plant to kill these things? Or are they not creating enough of an issue to kill the beneficial insects?  I'm mainly concerned about the holes in my bean leaves.  I'm worried they won't produce at all if they keep getting munched on.

cgollahon26 wrote:Can you tell if that is a spider mite? What can I put on my plant to kill these things? Or are they not creating enough of an issue to kill the beneficial insects?  I'm mainly concerned about the holes in my bean leaves.  I'm worried they won't produce at all if they keep getting munched on.

I'm not sure what the fuzzy thing was. not a great pic. I see the holes in your bean leaves, but I see no beetles. Perhaps they are gone now?
The damage to your bean leaves is currently minimal. If the beetles are gone there should be no more problems. Oftentimes handpicking or squishing is the best remedy.

If you could get and post a shot of the munching pest, this would help tremendously.

camprn wrote:

cgollahon26 wrote:Can you tell if that is a spider mite? What can I put on my plant to kill these things? Or are they not creating enough of an issue to kill the beneficial insects?  I'm mainly concerned about the holes in my bean leaves.  I'm worried they won't produce at all if they keep getting munched on.

I'm not sure what the fuzzy thing was. not a great pic. I see the holes in your bean leaves, but I see no beetles. Perhaps they are gone now?
The damage to your bean leaves is currently minimal. If the beetles are gone there should be no more problems. Oftentimes handpicking or squishing is the best remedy.

If you could get and post a shot of the munching pest, this would help tremendously.

Thanks.  Hopefully they are gone, but if I see any this evening, I will take a picture.

cgollahon26 wrote:

Camprn - this looks like powdery mildew to me and not downy mildew.  Am I wrong?

cgollahon26 wrote:

I have noticed 1 or 2 spider webs, and this is the closest bug I could find that could be the problem?  Or what is this thing? It looks to be carrying around white fluff on its butt.  Probably some sort of larvae? 

Could there actually be two bugs here.  The brown one and a white fluffy one that looks something like this.


See the white fluffy bug on the right side of the stem on the second leaf node down from the top.  ????????????

Yes! And that's what the webbing looked like a few weeks ago! What is it?

AtlantaMarie wrote:Hi Cgollahon.  Welcome!

Your ugly stepsister is probably the Mexican Bean Beetle.  Is it an orange-red?

I finally got a decent shot of the stepsister. It is more orange than i thought! Whatcha think? 



And is this an aphid? (Go easy on my ignorance, please!) Not a great pic, but its the best i could get with what light I had left. 

Close up of a green leaf hopper.
http://www.biolib.cz/IMG/GAL/BIG/179237.jpg

68carguy wrote:Close up of a green leaf hopper.
http://www.biolib.cz/IMG/GAL/BIG/179237.jpg

Thank you for identifying it! When I Wikipedia leaf hopper, I couldn't tell if it was beneficial or harmful (some are, some aren't?) The more i research, the more i realize how little I know!!! Please clue me in. I hope I haven't been a pest with all of my questions!

Sorry this is my first year as a SFG person and have not had a problem so far with insects...thank goodness!! So I don't really know the answer to be able to help you, but maybe someone will come along that has more experience that I.

cgollahon26 wrote:Yes! And that's what the webbing looked like a few weeks ago! What is it?

Don't know.  Someone on another forum said they were flatid planthoppers or fattid leaf hoppers.  I found a webpage that was sort of similar.
http://entnemdept.ufl.edu/creatures/orn/shrubs/citrus_flatid_planthopper.htm
But this article does not mention the tomato or bean plant as a host plant so I am not sure.

Welcome! I'm in Powder Springs and this is our first year. Lots of learning but also lots of success with this method. Went small because we had no idea what to expect. Next year, we're multiplying by six and adding vertical frames this fall a la Mel vs. old lattice and string. This forum is great motivator.

Thanks for the welcome! I can't wait to see what all you grow in Powder Springs! Just a quick update. My bush beans are obliterated and haven't produced anything. I'm still ill about it. Ready to rip them up and do something else. So what all are you 7b people planting right now? I'm ready to move onto something else. Also, I found earthworms in my old soil pile! I'm pretty excited about it. They're only good, right? Should I drop some in my raised beds?

Hello and welcome to the forum. I'm just south of you, I think, in Newnan, GA. I have used the SFG method for 8 years now but this is my first year in Georgia with it. My experience is that what is eating your green beans is a cucumber beetle. They look like green lady bugs. I have yet to find a great way to get rid of those. Sorry  . If your green beans are totally chewed pulls those out and replant. We still have time for them to mature before that frost date. As for your squash or pumpkins they have powdery mildew. A great way to cure that is taking 50% whole milk and 50% water in a spray bottle. Spray all leaves. You should see a change within a day or two. 2% milk works too just don't add water.

cgollahon26 wrote:Can you tell if that is a spider mite? What can I put on my plant to kill these things? Or are they not creating enough of an issue to kill the beneficial insects?  I'm mainly concerned about the holes in my bean leaves.  I'm worried they won't produce at all if they keep getting munched on.

What I see in your bean photo is not enough to be a concern, yet, anyway. The plants need a little stress to be productive.

The powdery mildew is more of a concern. I use organic copper fungicide to deal with fungi like this. And remove leaves that are already infected, because fungicides are preventative not curing.

cgollahon26 wrote:Hi all, 

I'm a new gardener from West Atlanta area and am trying my first square foot garden.  I love this forum and appreciate any and all advice ya'll have shared to others so far  feel free to do the same for this newbie!

Welcome!

Suggestion on the cuke in your photo. If many of them are like that, you may wish to start hand pollinating. The reason it did not fill out on the blossom end is that not enough pollen was delivered to the female flower - not enough visits by bees. Most folks think, if they see a bee or two, everything is fine. But the garden needs to be humming with bees, because you need to get 25 or more bee visits in the short window of time that the female blossom is open.