White Paper thin leaves

[janedoe45]

Hi,
I have a huge infestation of some sort. It starts within a few days of planting my plants. Happened to my pumpkins, melons(though not as severe as anything else), bush cukes, and more recently my tomatoes and peppers.
I have sprayed my early plants with a mixture of baking soda, dish soap, a spoon of oil, and warm water. So far it seems to have helped the cukes, melons, & pumpkins. I just noticed the white leaves on the tomatoes yesterday and sprayed them right away(hoping to get the same recovery as the first round). These white areas start out on the edges of my cuke & pumpkin leaves and spread inward then down the stem.
While on the peppers and tomatoes they start more in the middle and spread outward.
It starts as white spots, spreads, then eventually turns the leaves paper thin and transparent, and eventually spreads to the stem(only the outward stems, not the main plant stem) if I don't catch it in time. The ones that arent caught shrivek up and die, then I pintch them off.

So any ideas??
This happened within two days of planting to everything I put in the ground(minus the peas, beans, spinach, and anything tied to a trellis)
its making me sad and crazy! I really hope this stuff survives this!
The first pic is an Isis Candy Hybrid Cherry, then a Rugers Hybrid slicer, then my recovering Bush Champion Cukes about 1 weeks post spray(Baking Soda, Soap, Oil & Water)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/50716039@N02/?saved=1

[rainbowgardener]

You said infestation; that sounds like insects. Have you seen any insect life?

Actually what the plants look most like to me is badly sunburned. You said this is within a few days of planting them out. Where did the plants come from? what kind of conditions were they growing in? Were they grown indoors? Were they hardened off to transition from indoors to outdoors?

Plants grown indoors or in greenhouses are tender and not used to direct sun. If they are moved immediately from the protected situation to full sun, they can burn up like that.

If that is what the problem is, your spray isn't really helping. It's just that over time they do adapt. When they start putting out new leaves, the new leaves will be more adapted to direct sun and will do better.

Give them plenty of water and perhaps a little protection from hot afternoon sun and they should be okay.

What do you think, could this be it?

[janedoe45]

Thats what I thought! but they arent getting more than a few (4hrs) of Direct sunlight. Plus I spent 4 weeks hardening all them off before I planted them in the ground.
All my plants were started from seed indoors.
I havent seen much in the way of bugs other than spiders, so I correct myself as far as using the word infestation.
I also made sure they were planted in cooler temps rather than in mid day to avoid them getting wilted or burned.
The spray caused the leaves to harden almost right away and they seemed to be ok.
Should I try maybe a light sheet cover over the tops to see if it helps?
The problem is spreading through the stems, thats why I pushed the sun burn idea aside. The tomatoes don't seem to be doing well at all, it seems to be moving into each leaf stem.

[rainbowgardener]

OK not sunburn then... 1) you did everything right, re hardening off, etc 2) sunburn would not affect the stems.


If it is something fungal, your baking soda solution is a good treatment for that.


So I'm a bit out of ideas... maybe someone else with more knowledge of plant diseases will come along and help!

[janedoe45]

Yea I agree I think its something fungal, just not sure what.
thought it was powdery mildew, but it travels through the stems...
Ive seen this before just not on such a high scale(across most plants)
The spray seems to be working though.
Just wish I knew what it was