- TomatoNut95
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- Location: Texas Zone 8
Sick looking Cabbage?
Maybe I'm just paranoid, but something about these leaves just looks wrong. A couple of the plants(I have 4) look like this. The other two don't look this bad. I inspected the leaves closely and saw no cabbage worm signs. Does something look wrong to you, or am I freaking out for no reason?
- rainbowgardener
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- Gary350
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- Location: TN. 50 years of gardening experience.
When I lived in AZ there were micro small bugs that looked like gray color dust if they stay on a cabbage plant 3 days leaves turned into rotten mush. I sprayed bugs away with water hose but next day they were back. Magnifying glass makes bugs no bigger than tip end of a hair look like micro small spiders. After washing them away day after day they got so bad I could wash them away they return in a few hours. Soon the whole plant turned to rotten mush. Maybe TX has same bugs as AZ.
- TomatoNut95
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Thank-you for replying!
@rainbowgardener, I will remove the sick leaves as soon as possible. I was so afraid the damage was being caused by overwatering as I've gotten so much rain lately.
@Gary, I own a microscope I've held onto since my school years. I will examine a leaf to see if I see anything crawling around just like I saw some weird little microscopic critter on a tomato leaf last year.
@rainbowgardener, I will remove the sick leaves as soon as possible. I was so afraid the damage was being caused by overwatering as I've gotten so much rain lately.
@Gary, I own a microscope I've held onto since my school years. I will examine a leaf to see if I see anything crawling around just like I saw some weird little microscopic critter on a tomato leaf last year.
- TomatoNut95
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AH-HA!! Upon closer examination, I found small piles of poo. Suspecting VERY foul play, I searched underneath this really sick-looking ornamental cabbage and found what appears to be a cabbage worm. After disposing of the culprit, I spritz the cabbages lower leaves with insecticidal soap.
For fun I looked at a leaf under the scope anyway, and saw nothing microscopic creeping about.
For fun I looked at a leaf under the scope anyway, and saw nothing microscopic creeping about.
- TomatoNut95
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I have heard of vinegar killing mold. I used vinegar to clean an old table that was infested with white mold. But I never knew you could use vinegar to kill mold on plants. Very fasinating; thanks, @Gary! But as much rain as I've been getting lately, I'd like to avoid wetting the cabbage anymore. Will cold kill mold? After today it is supposed to get very cold: 30's at night for several nights.
- TomatoNut95
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- Joined: Sun May 26, 2019 11:11 am
- Location: Texas Zone 8
In that case I better not use it. I've already given myself a bad reputation when I killed tomato plants in the past by spraying cooking oil on them to kill aphids. I will just keep my eyes on the cabbages; pull off any diseased leaves and destroy any very sick-looking plants. If it may help any, I may scrap away the wet leaves from around the bases of the plants.