cant seem to identify the problem

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AgentBuckwald

New Member
Hi all, this is my first post on here after exhausting my research capabilities. Recently, my larger and smaller outdoor plants alike have shown signs of damage exclusively to the newer, top leaves of the plants. it appears as though something has been gnawing through the leaf stems about a half inch above where they connect to the main stems sometimes even the entire top itself. they tend to cut 95% of the stem and leave the leaf hanging. it has affected every single plant of mine. ive spent hours observing the plants and looking for signs of insect life and found no likely culprit. whats crazy is the speed in which this is occuring. I could leave them unattended for 2 hours or so and come back to more of the sites damaged than before. these plants are otherwise completely healthy with absolutely no other typical sign of insect damage or deficiency. I fear that without a solution, this problem will rapidly ruin my entire crop.

I am out of ideas. Can anyone offer any advice. It would be greatly appreciated
 

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hotrodharley

hotrodharley

Well-Known Member
There’s no insects of any sort anywhere around there? No butterflies or pretty moths? No grasshoppers or anything else?
 
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AgentBuckwald

New Member
hotrodharley said:
There’s no insects of any sort anywhere around there? No butterflies or pretty moths? No grasshoppers or anything else?
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I've seen the occasional gnat, common fly, ants (not on the plants) ladybugs, small spiders, nothing unusual. I have seen a couple white moths/butterflies that flutter around some of my flowering vegetables but ive never observed them on my cannabis or even near them. no grasshoppers or crickets that i can see or hear. it just doesnt make sense. I have 28 plants and they have significantly damaged at least 24 of them within a matter of days which logically says i should at least see some influx of a particular pest but i havent really. part of me is considering that its some sort of crazy disease ive never encountered but who knows
 
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AgentBuckwald

New Member
that notion crossed my mind as ive had cutworm problems with my other garden vegetables, however, ive observed them on those plants in significant numbers as well as their dung. those also do not seem to discriminate against certain parts of the plants and will eat whatever they can. the pest im dealing with prefers only the leaf stems on the uppermost part of the plants. no damage elsewhere. and theyre not even eating the plant, they seem to be sucking the fluid out of the stem
 
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AgentBuckwald

New Member
I think i have it solved. pretty sure the damage if from invasive japanese beetles. I cought one in the act and saw another appear soon after. I dont know how i wasnt able to see any of them the previous days but im pretty confident they are the culprit
 
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AgentBuckwald

New Member
Scratch that. this is 100% from whats called a leafcutter bee. I just witnessed one gnawing through my tops. they say they arent harmful to crops, theyre wrong
 
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RonnieB2

Well-Known Member
I used to grow outside and never really had any bad problems. This is in fact my first indoors grow. I have a 2 plant setup to see how it goes
 
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AgentBuckwald

New Member
from what I gather, leafcutter bees are mostly solitary and feed off of their "favorite" plants over and over again meaning all the damage could very likely be from one or two of the bastards which is why I had such a hard time finding them. once I saw it happen and how fast it cut it, i can see how its possible. bees are very picky with what they feed off of so my first step is to make up some capcasin spray to hopefully deter it as once they realize a plant is a no-go they usually commit that to memory. I really don't want to result to using pesticides as anything that will kill this bee will likely harm any neighbouring colonies of beneficial bees. We'll see how the pepper spray goes. Last resort, im using cypermethrin and going nuclear on the fucker
 
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AgentBuckwald

New Member
gorillaglueaf said:
what do you think??
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a few things come to mind at first glance
it could be insect damage and if it is, it resembles fungus gnat damage. these can be hard to spot and you wont often see them in large numbers

secondly, phosphorous deficiency could be a possibility. I cant see the whole plant, but the distribution of the spots looks more uniform than random indicating a problem from within. keep in mind that even with appropriate levels of phosphorus, too much nitrogen can inhibit its uptake

less likely, it could be a manganese deficiency. this isn't one too many growers encounter as the availability of manganese in most soils is sufficient for the trace amounts that are required, however it is more likely to be experienced by indoor growers using hydro systems as it can be easy to overlook certain trace elements that are important and not included in their solution
 
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