Author Topic: What is attacking my citrus leafs?  (Read 3448 times)

Samu

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What is attacking my citrus leafs?
« on: October 13, 2014, 09:05:30 PM »
Would anyone can help identify what's attacking my citrus plant leafs and suggest some remedy for it? It's a 3-4 yrs Washington Navel Semi Dwarf planted in a 1/2 Whiskey barrel, it fruited excellent 4-5 oranges last year; but I am afraid I won't get any this season.
The close up first photo is the bottom, the 2nd is the top of the leaf.
The new young seemingly healthy leafs already sprouting in some places (3rd photo), so if I can prevent this from happening again, hopefully I will get better result next season.

As you can see I am a newbie in this forum as well as a home grower, so any help would be much appreciated!







Sam

jegpg1

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Re: What is attacking my citrus leafs?
« Reply #1 on: October 13, 2014, 09:22:32 PM »
Leaf miners.

davidgarcia899

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Re: What is attacking my citrus leafs?
« Reply #2 on: October 13, 2014, 09:36:17 PM »
Leaf miners. It's just ornamental damage. It's only harmful to very small plants.
- David Antonio Garcia

davidgarcia899

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Re: What is attacking my citrus leafs?
« Reply #3 on: October 13, 2014, 09:37:45 PM »
You can treat it, buts it's no necessarily. They often only attack for a certain period during the year and then disappear
- David Antonio Garcia

Samu

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Re: What is attacking my citrus leafs?
« Reply #4 on: October 13, 2014, 10:17:36 PM »
Ok, Leaf miners; thanks "jeg" and David!
(Obviously, I had no idea before).
I'll do some search on this.
Sam

Rob1977

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Re: What is attacking my citrus leafs?
« Reply #5 on: October 13, 2014, 11:04:27 PM »
I fight them from spring until fall. IMO the best thing to fight them with is Spinosad. Spray new growth every 2 weeks until they harden off. Your leafs will be spotless.

Don

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Re: What is attacking my citrus leafs?
« Reply #6 on: October 14, 2014, 03:50:40 AM »
Also as soon as the new leaves get attacked uncurl the edges of the leaf and you will find the grub hiding in there and kill it that way they don't get big enough to breed and you will keep the numbers down that way too.

puglvr1

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Re: What is attacking my citrus leafs?
« Reply #7 on: October 14, 2014, 07:26:12 AM »


Also its worth mentioning that CLM seems to stall the growths on newly planted or very young trees...I had a satsuma that I did not treat for over 2 years and it got smaller and smaller...not treating them when the trees are too young can eventually cause the tree to decline...once they're mature and bigger they can handle the attacks a lot better...it then becomes more cosmetic than anything.

Since I started treating my young satsuma the last 13 months it has doubled in size  8)

Spinosad in combination with Neem oil has helped a lot...

http://www.randylemmon.com/insectsdiseases/gardenline-leafminer.html

Samu

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Re: What is attacking my citrus leafs?
« Reply #8 on: October 14, 2014, 11:30:41 PM »
Wow, this forums are great! Thanks Rob, Don and "pug".
You guys have been so helpful!
Sam

Mark in Texas

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Re: What is attacking my citrus leafs?
« Reply #9 on: October 15, 2014, 07:36:51 AM »
Looking at photo #3, photosynthesis is pretty compromised - not good.

Imidacloprid is my pesticide of choice for complete leaf miner kill.  Yes, at any stage, bearing or not.

Mark

Don

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Re: What is attacking my citrus leafs?
« Reply #10 on: October 15, 2014, 07:43:19 AM »
Not a problem

Samu

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Re: What is attacking my citrus leafs?
« Reply #11 on: October 15, 2014, 05:46:03 PM »
Looking at photo #3, photosynthesis is pretty compromised - not good.

Imidacloprid is my pesticide of choice for complete leaf miner kill.  Yes, at any stage, bearing or not.

Mark

I guess it's too late now to save the existing "adult" leafs, right? Seems that most -if not all the leafs
except the newly sprouted ones- were already affected. So, I'll start looking to get those
recommended cure to be use to protect the young and the upcoming leafs...
Thanks Mark!
Sam

Mark in Texas

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Re: What is attacking my citrus leafs?
« Reply #12 on: October 16, 2014, 08:35:31 AM »
I guess it's too late now to save the existing "adult" leafs, right? Seems that most -if not all the leafs
except the newly sprouted ones- were already affected. So, I'll start looking to get those
recommended cure to be use to protect the young and the upcoming leafs...
Thanks Mark!

I'd say 'yes' based on how they look.  It's all about photosynthesis and I doubt if those are of any value to the tree.  We call that a "sink". 

Adonis 75WP from ebay is an excellent cheap source of imidacloprid should you choose to go that way.

Good luck!