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health Help! Something wrong with my plants.

Mallory

Mallory

I noticed this today, on 3 of my plants. All 3 affected plants were sitting next to each other. The plants on the other side of the table are ok. At first I thought it was stink bug damage, because they make perfectly circular dead spots on leaves, but I would like other opinions. In one of the photos you can see that the leaf is cracking and splitting. The little spots are white and translucent, and some have a black "bulls-eye" in the middle. 
 
I know I am not overwatering, but I did mist the leaves with distilled water maybe once or twice a week, only because they are in a room with a woodstove and the air is bone dry. They are not crowded and I am careful about the leaves never touching the soil. I have looked for bugs but only find stink bugs here and there, a few lady bugs, and I had a small infestation of scolid wasps that popped out of hibernation from an overwintered plant. I killed all bugs except the lady bugs. There are definitely no aphids or anything hiding under the leaves that I can see.
 
I'm worried this is bacterial or fungal, but in that case I have no idea what to treat the plants with and could really use some help. So far all I have done is removed the damaged leaves. 
 
 

 

 

 
EDIT*************** Here are more photos as requested. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 
My first thought is mite damage. Have you looked underneath the leaves? Also, have you looked at the plant with a jeweler's loupe? Some mites are too small to see with the naked eye, and a jeweler's loupe at 30x will help you see them.

... And in case it is mites, definitely separate those plants way away from the others, and start spraying with insecticidal soap.

Posting more.... It seems you have something else possibly going on, as well. Can you give us a ahot that gets more of the plants in the picture? Plus a shot of the ones that look ok?
 
geeme said:
My first thought is mite damage. Have you looked underneath the leaves? Also, have you looked at the plant with a jeweler's loupe? Some mites are too small to see with the naked eye, and a jeweler's loupe at 30x will help you see them.

... And in case it is mites, definitely separate those plants way away from the others, and start spraying with insecticidal soap.

Posting more.... It seems you have something else possibly going on, as well. Can you give us a ahot that gets more of the plants in the picture? Plus a shot of the ones that look ok?
Click to expand...
 
 
I just added more photos to my original post. I have looked for bugs but there is nothing (aside from stink bugs and lady bugs). I looked very closely under leaves but I do not have a magnifying glass. I noticed today that an overwinter, pictured above, has a black spot on one leaf, and a black spot on the stem, both pictured. This plant has been overwintered for 3 years and never had an issue with disease. 
 
At this point I am starting to think bacterial, fungal, virus, but I don't know which one or how to treat it. I am sure all of the plants being on the same table has exposed them. The one mistake I can think of is I watered some of the plants with rain barrel water instead of the store-bought the distilled they have been getting. 
 
If this is bacterial is it treatable? Or do I have to kill plants? 
 
it looks a lot like what happened when I accidentally spilled a few flecks of dishwasher powder on a houseplant once, no chance of any tiny splashes of chemical, laundry soap, washing liquid, being involved here at all? 
 
Thanks for the replies. So I talked to the local nursery today, and they think it's stink bug damage. The very black spot on the one leaf ended up peeling off, revealing that the leaf was healthy underneath, so it was some kind of substance sitting on top of the leaf surface, who knows.
 
Are they under artificial light at all? What kind of light?
 
I would hold off on misting with distilled water. It lacks any nutrients or minerals and will pull them from the plant/soil/air to achieve a balance.
 
Mallory said:
Thanks for the replies. So I talked to the local nursery today, and they think it's stink bug damage. The very black spot on the one leaf ended up peeling off, revealing that the leaf was healthy underneath, so it was some kind of substance sitting on top of the leaf surface, who knows.
Click to expand...
 
Stinkbugs have a blackish/reddish poo.
 
Miguelovic said:
Are they under artificial light at all? What kind of light?
 
I would hold off on misting with distilled water. It lacks any nutrients or minerals and will pull them from the plant/soil/air to achieve a balance.
Click to expand...
 
They are under T8s, and that's true I thought the plants would appreciate the humidity, but it seems to serve no real purpose.
 
Sm1nts2escape said:
 
Stinkbugs have a blackish/reddish poo.
Click to expand...
 
I think you are right.
 
 
dash 2 said:
     The lesions in your third pic look kinda wet/mushy. If that's the case, it may be bacterial. How do they look today?
Click to expand...
 
It turns out the very black spot was a substance sitting on top of the leaf, that did not damage it. Probably stink bug poop. And the wet looking white spots I believe are a result of the stuff stink bugs secrete to dissolve the inside of the leaves. Plants are looking good today, but I removed the damaged leaves. and this was only 3 leaves out of 87 plants. I'm keeping a real close watch and bought some copper in case I have to use it.
 
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