Hi all,
I've noticed that my newly planted prunus (planted 4/5 months ago) is looking rather unwell. I hadn't really looked at it very closely but now that I have, I can see that a lot of leaves have little holes in them. I saw some posts about canker but somehow the description doesn't quite match what I can see. They are for example some very peculiar brown traces on the leaves that look like slug trails, and this is not at all mentioned in posts about canker.
I have attached a couple of photos, if anyone knows what this is and how to address it that'd be awesome!
Many thanks for your help
Greg
What's eating my prunus ?
- Attachments
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- under side of the leaf
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- top side of the leaf
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rainbowgardener
- Super Green Thumb
- Posts: 25279
- Joined: Sun Feb 15, 2009 6:04 pm
- Location: TN/GA 7b
The trails on the top side are not slug trails, they are leaf miners.
Leaf miners are the larvae of any of several different flies/ moths. The eggs are laid inside the leaf, between the layers. When the larvae hatch out, they chew their way around inside the leaf, leaving the squiggle trail.
Here's a post about them:
https://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/vi ... er#p340418
You didn't say where you are. it always helps to tell us where you are located. There are hardly any garden questions that can be discussed without regard to location/ climate. In re the leaf miners, in cold winter territory, they just over winter in the soil as a cocoon. That slows them down and they generally aren't a serious pest. In warm winter areas, they just keep producing more generations and can become a serious infestation.
Remember, your tree can easily lose 10% of its leaf surface without particularly noticing, so no reason to stress about very minor leaf holes, etc.
I can't really tell if you also have something else going on with your tree. A picture showing the tree as well might help or at least a branch with more leaves.
Welcome to the Forum!
Leaf miners are the larvae of any of several different flies/ moths. The eggs are laid inside the leaf, between the layers. When the larvae hatch out, they chew their way around inside the leaf, leaving the squiggle trail.
Here's a post about them:
https://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/vi ... er#p340418
You didn't say where you are. it always helps to tell us where you are located. There are hardly any garden questions that can be discussed without regard to location/ climate. In re the leaf miners, in cold winter territory, they just over winter in the soil as a cocoon. That slows them down and they generally aren't a serious pest. In warm winter areas, they just keep producing more generations and can become a serious infestation.
Remember, your tree can easily lose 10% of its leaf surface without particularly noticing, so no reason to stress about very minor leaf holes, etc.
I can't really tell if you also have something else going on with your tree. A picture showing the tree as well might help or at least a branch with more leaves.
Welcome to the Forum!
-
rainbowgardener
- Super Green Thumb
- Posts: 25279
- Joined: Sun Feb 15, 2009 6:04 pm
- Location: TN/GA 7b
Information is relevant, including what I said about warm winters. You may not think so, but London qualifies as warm winters - I think you don't get hard freezes very often or very consistently and the ground doesn't freeze solid. That means you are more likely to have serious leaf miner issues than places that do have frozen ground for months.
To start with, just clip off the leaves with squiggles on it. Prunus trees are deciduous, so it must be about to lose those leaves anyway, so it won't miss them. Destroy the leaves, don't compost them. When it does drop the leaves, be sure to rake and destroy those as well, in case they have eggs or small larvae in them that might survive.
Then dig around in the soil around your tree. You are looking for something like this:
https://entnemdept.ufl.edu/creatures/veg ... iner05.jpg
there are lots of different kinds of leaf miners as each species tends to be fairly specific about what plants it will use. So your pupae may be a different color or slightly differently shaped. But they are all similar. They are no more than a quarter of an inch long, so look carefully. They are probably not very far below the surface. Any that you can find and get rid of now, saves you problems later.
To start with, just clip off the leaves with squiggles on it. Prunus trees are deciduous, so it must be about to lose those leaves anyway, so it won't miss them. Destroy the leaves, don't compost them. When it does drop the leaves, be sure to rake and destroy those as well, in case they have eggs or small larvae in them that might survive.
Then dig around in the soil around your tree. You are looking for something like this:
https://entnemdept.ufl.edu/creatures/veg ... iner05.jpg
there are lots of different kinds of leaf miners as each species tends to be fairly specific about what plants it will use. So your pupae may be a different color or slightly differently shaped. But they are all similar. They are no more than a quarter of an inch long, so look carefully. They are probably not very far below the surface. Any that you can find and get rid of now, saves you problems later.