Holes, withering leaves an bugs not sure whats the problem

[FDL]

So I have been away and left my plants in the care of a friend. I got back and one of the plants (my strongest/biggest) seems to be having some problems. Two of the biggest leaves have holes in them and one of the smaller leaves is withering. Theres a few things it could be but im not too sure.

 

a) my friend put on sugar cane mulch for nitrogen, could this be affecting my plant??

 

when i looked closely I could see in the centre of the plant lots of little blakc dots and I looked under the leaves and there were little black bugs not many but some.

 

c) My friend moved them to a new area where ther was more sun but it was close to a compost heaps, could the bugs be coming from here?

 

d) he also left it out in while it rained very heavily the whole week so it could be a case of over watering

 

here is a pic

 

[TheTreeBoundRat]

It looks fine apart from the odd small bite mark. In a week or so it will outgrow the danger period for bugs and in the meantime you can protect it with fly wire and duct tape. Peace and good luck

[brick]

The plant looks happy enough. IMO you should try and get some "Neem Oil" from a nursery and spray the top and underneath the leaves. The leaf on the right looks like a caterpillar had the munchies, the left hand leaf not sure. The neem doesn't kill the catepillars but it sure fucks them up a bit if sprayed directly on to it, the black dots could be spider mite eggs. The neem will kill them. I spray my plants twice a week with neem, all natural it actually suffocates the bugs rather than poison them.

[FDL]

Thanks guys ill try get some of those oils. Also one of the leaves has started to wither, the one next to the big bite mark not sure what thats from.

[FDL]

Ok so now one of the leaves has collapsed. As you can see in the first pic it was holding itself. The chomp is too big but and it has fallen over, should I cut it or just leave it? Its only at 3 weeks so still pretty young. You can see next to the bite the the other leaf that has withered up too.

 

 

[DuskB4Dawn]

I would defiantly keep that away from any new ones. It could contaminate or something

that's a horror story actually. I think the compost heap was a bad ideadawm what was that fool thinking

[brick]

Ok so now one of the leaves has collapsed. As you can see in the first pic it was holding itself. The chomp is too big but and it has fallen over, should I cut it or just leave it? Its only at 3 weeks so still pretty young. You can see next to the bite the the other leaf that has withered up too.

 

 

 

Looks like a catepillar to me, or looper they have big appetites. Have a good search around the pot and the plant, they are not that big and can be hard to find. I would cut that leaf off they leave their shit on the plants also. Plant is too young to hit it with chemical's. Not that I would use them anyway unless extreme action is required.

Get out there in the night time with a torch you might just find something munching.

[FDL]

Yeah im pretty sure it was just some bug or grub that ate the leaves but im still not sure as to what is the reason for the smaller leaf to wither like, the person I left it with while away said it was sort of stuck to the bigger plant so that could be why. Iv cut the leaf and moved them back to their old locations and they seem to be goin much better now although the one that got eaten ahs lost some stability.

[brick]

Yeah im pretty sure it was just some bug or grub that ate the leaves but im still not sure as to what is the reason for the smaller leaf to wither like, the person I left it with while away said it was sort of stuck to the bigger plant so that could be why. Iv cut the leaf and moved them back to their old locations and they seem to be goin much better now although the one that got eaten ahs lost some stability.

 

The leaf has not withered FDL is has dropped because where it was munched upon has taken the strength of the leaf to stay upright/horizontal away. Oops had a closer look. Has that small leaf withered or curled under? If the latter then that is where your catepillar is/was building a coocoon.

[FDL]

Yep I relised that i turned it over and it had silk all over it so i opened it up but doesnt seem to be any sign of a caterpiller in there which i thought was strange. I think iv got it going good now havnt noticed any new bight marks in any of my leaves so should be ok I hope. And the withered/curled leaf is looking better now so hopefully stays good.