aefernandez
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Joined: Thu Apr 13, 2017 3:33 pm

Indoor Basil - spotted, flat leaves

Hey everyone,

First of all I'm new to the forum and am new to taking care of plants so any advice is appreciated! I live in New York City and have recently started a small, indoor herb garden on my windowsill.

Over the past few days I noticed the basil starting to look spotty and one of the big leaves is starting to flatten out (pictures below). I water almost every day, when the soil is completely dry and the plant has just started to wilt. The plants sit on an east-facing window sill, inside the apartment. I noticed a few small white bugs on the underside of the leaves a couple of days ago so I ordered neem oil to try to get rid of the bugs but wanted to see if there was any other reason the leaves might have these pale brown spots. Any thoughts or advice would be so helpful!
Basil 1.jpg
Basil 1.jpg
Basil 3.jpg
Basil 4.jpg
Thank you!
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Basil 2.jpg

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applestar
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Posts: 30504
Joined: Thu May 01, 2008 7:21 pm
Location: Zone 6, NJ (3/M)4/E ~ 10/M(11/B)

When you zoom in, you can see tiny black specks surrounding the white marks. They look like frass -- pest poop -- as if there are tiny larvae feeding on the leaves. But I didn't recognize what makes this kind of frass.

Now, typically, when I don't recognize a common pest, it's thrips. So I looked THAT up for images of larvae and black specks, and it looks like the results confirm.

Hope someone can give you expertise on how to treat your basil for them.



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