Spots on my mint leaves

beccahorne

Hello all,

I've recently grown some mint from cuttings and I have noticed they are developing some white and brown spots.

I am a little worried as I was planning to sell them, many of the cuttings seem fine but I'm worried it will spread.

Upon checking my adult plants I can see they have the same spots.
Is this a soil deficiency or a pest infestation? I did find a caterpillar on one plant which I removed, I checked the plants and can't see anymore.

The cuttings are in Westland John Innes no2 and the adult plants are in a generic multi purpose compost, could the compost be the issue?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

pansyface

IT'S A BIT DIFFICULT TO TELL WITHOUT TOUCHING THE LEAVES.

ARE THE WHITE SPOTS POWDERY? IF SO, THEN IT'S PROBABLY POWDERY MILDEW.

IF NOT, ARE YOU GROWING THEM BEHIND GLASS AND WATERING THEM FROM ABOVE? IN THAT CASE THE WHITE SPOTS MAY BE SUN SCALD.

THE BROWN PATCH LOOKS LIKE A BIT OF ROT. PROBABLY CAUSED BY EXCESS WATER SITTING ON A LEAF WHICH HAS MAYBE BEEN SLIGHTLY DAMAGED AND WHICH HAS ALLOWED A FUNGUS TO GET IN.

beccahorne

Hi pansyface,

Yes it's really hard to accurately show the leaves on photos.

The white spots don't feel powdery. The adult plants are outside in containers and the cuttings are currently inside after potting a few days ago.
I am watering from above at present, would you suggest from below to reduce this?

I was just removing some of the worst leaves and I found a small white insect, could this be caused by an insect do you think?

Ah ok that completely explains the brown spots thank you, I am in the process of removing the damaged leaves, thankfully only two of them had brown spots.

beccahorne

beccahorne says:

Hi pansyface,

Yes it's really hard to accurately show the leaves on photos.

The white spots don't feel powdery. The adult plants are outside in containers and the cuttings are currently inside after potting a few days ago.
I am watering from above at present, would you suggest from below to reduce this?

I was just removing some of the worst leaves and I found a small white insect, could this be caused by an insect do you think?

Ah ok that completely explains the brown spots thank you, I am in the process of removing the damaged leaves, thankfully only two of them had brown spots.

See original post

 In addition to this post I managed to snag some pictures of the little critter. I'm currently holding him responsible for the damage to my plants, could I be right?

sorry for the poor quality photos, my phone camera can only do so much with such a tiny thing!

If so how do I treat my plants while making sure they are still edible?