Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I have a variety of plants in my growbed, but I am having trouble with my zucchini, peppers, strawberries, and tomatoes. I am not sure if it is just regular die off, or if there is a deficiency, or of something is killing (like a disease) or eating my plants. Here are some photos of them.

Zucchini:


Peppers:


Strawberries:


Tomato:


I have started to apply a neem oil spray to them for good measure as of about 2 days ago.

Zuchinni - probably bird damage but possibly slugs
Pepper - Not sure
Strawberries - Looks like salt could be the problem. They don't like much salt and I see some accumulation on the surface of the Hydroton.
The last one could also be bird damage since it's right along the edge of the bed but I'm not sure about this one either. It looks like there might be an additional problem with this plant - check for spider mites on the underside of the leaves if it's been hot and dry.

Bird damage for me is usually (but not exclusively) on leafy greens (especially Kale) and it's usually a bunch of finches that rip into things. I put out about twenty transplants two days ago and neglected to cover them with bird netting. I maybe have 5 transplants left. The damage isn't always confined to the edges of the growbeds.

I am using dechlorinated tap water. My area has quite a bit of minerals, but it isn't super high on salt.

Have you added any Sodium Chloride for helping fish build a slime coat, fighting disease or against nitrite poisoning? Even if you haven't I'd still consider that the water might contain enough salts to cause this. Could also be the heat from the rocks. - I notice it's the lower leaves.

It's not that unusual for strawberries to lose a few leaves like this so if it doesn't get worse I wouldn't worry much.

the zucchinis have a few leaves going brown, is these bugs?

rest of the plant looks ok.

Not a spider mite Slowboat they are much smaller, usually barely visible. Usually they camp out on the underside of the leaf and will have some webbing when they get worse. Some leaf types look sand-papery if there are spider mites. The second pic might have spider mites on the right side where the leaf goes from pale to green (all the little nubs) but can't tell for sure. Might be sunburn. On some plants this will show up first where the leaf begins to curve, hard to explain but basically the part of the leaf that gets the hottest because of the suns angle. Might be mold but it's not obvious.

I'm sure there are some other things I haven't thought of.

Cheers

thanks Scotty, it was small barley a dot, couldn't see it until I took a pic with a macro setting.

Maybe it was a predator ?

Yep, probably a predator.

Take a look at these pics of the two spotted mite it's one of the more common spider mites around here. The first pic gives a good idea of what I mean by sand papered appearance on the leaf. See any mites (if you open the image and zoom in (with cntrol [+], cntrol [-] takes you back out), the darker yellow spots are probably mites). The other two pics show you the webbing and what they look like.

http://www.extension.umn.edu/garden/diagnose/plant/vegetable/eggplant/leavesdiscolored.html

I have not added any. The sodium content in the water in my area is about 60mg/L. I dechlorinate with ascorbic acid, so that may add a negligible amount of sodium, however you only need a very small amount for a whole tote. I have probably added less than a full tablespoon ever. The only other thing I have added is maxicrop. Should I get some netting to put over the plants maybe?

Salt doesn't sound too bad. I'd clip off the dead leaves and just see how the strawberries do.

Yes, I would get netting, they can do a lot of damage in a very short time. I could be wrong about this being bird damage but I don't think I am

thanks Scotty, the "sand papered appearance on the leaf" is not visible on my leaves.

Could it be calcium deficiency?

everything else seems ok?

I don't know that this is causing the dying leaves but the Zucchini looks like it might have a Nitrogen deficiency. They are heavy feeders so this would make sense. I'd cut off the dying leaves (in case it's fungal) and then give it a foliar feed of some fertizer with Nitrogen being careful not to burn the leaves by applying too much Nitrogen (use something with instructions that's intended for foliar feeding).

If it was a Calcium deficiency the veins would be darker than the spaces between them (Interveinal Chlorosis)

Cheers

I got the netting up a week ago and it doesn't seem to be improving...

I have potassium nitrate, is there a way to dose with this?

First things first - Slowboat, I think you may be right about it being calcium - Little hard to tell where the growing point is, if it's the new growth with yellowing then it's not Nitrogen. Sorry for pointing you the wrong direction.

TBT - I'm not sure of the dose for Potassium Nitrate. Are you adding it mostly for the Potassium or the Nitrate?

I am using it for the nitrate. I found an online source that reccomends a 1-1.5% solution by weight for foliar feeding so I tried that out.