White splotches on leaves

[harry]

I need some help identifying the cause of white splotches on my Aji Amarillo leaves.

It begins with a few sparse spots on the leaves:



On one of the worse affected leaves the majority of the leaf surface is affected:



Aphids on the plant were treated with Malathion. The leaves were affected before treating for aphids.

 

[geeme]

I haven't had aphids, so don't know if they do that or not.

Any little "dots" running around on the plant? I had spider mites not too long ago, and they do something similar, though mine never got that bad. There are different kinds of spider mites, and the ones on my plants looked like little red dots running around - they're really small, so you'd need a magnifying lense to make out the details. Spider mites will puncture the cell surface of leaves, and can either hide out inside them and/or lay their eggs inside them. This is part of what makes getting rid of spider mites difficult. I cut off all the leaves with even the slightest bit of damage, and soaked the plants and dirt with a 50/50 mix of rubbing alcohol and water. The only thing is I can't tell you with 100% certainty if that got rid of them or not - at the same time the temps dropped here, and mites do go dormant when cool weather hits. The alcohol/water mix was recommended by my county extension office, and since I live in an area with farming, I'm at least hoping it's a good one.

 

[srin2]

it could be leaf miners! they can do that kind of damage!
the remedy is to remove the affected leaves. It gets rid of the existing leaf miners before they become adults and lay more eggs.(destroy the leaves! do not put in your compost etc. burn the leaves is a good way) you can spray with an insecticide such as neem to prevent them.

 

[harry]

I haven't had aphids, so don't know if they do that or not.

Any little "dots" running around on the plant? I had spider mites not too long ago, and they do something similar, though mine never got that bad. There are different kinds of spider mites, and the ones on my plants looked like little red dots running around - they're really small, so you'd need a magnifying lense to make out the details. Spider mites will puncture the cell surface of leaves, and can either hide out inside them and/or lay their eggs inside them. This is part of what makes getting rid of spider mites difficult. I cut off all the leaves with even the slightest bit of damage, and soaked the plants and dirt with a 50/50 mix of rubbing alcohol and water. The only thing is I can't tell you with 100% certainty if that got rid of them or not - at the same time the temps dropped here, and mites do go dormant when cool weather hits. The alcohol/water mix was recommended by my county extension office, and since I live in an area with farming, I'm at least hoping it's a good one.

I haven't seen any spider mites on the plant or near the plant. There isn't much visible at the moment crawling around on the plant.

it could be leaf miners! they can do that kind of damage!
the remedy is to remove the affected leaves. It gets rid of the existing leaf miners before they become adults and lay more eggs.(destroy the leaves! do not put in your compost etc. burn the leaves is a good way) you can spray with an insecticide such as neem to prevent them.

The pattern I removed a number of leaves from the plant not long ago and sighted only two insects. One was a translucent white and looked somewhat like an aphid. The other insect was tiny (1mm long) and appeared to hold onto the leave with its mouth and wiggle its tail in the air.

I'm considering throwing out the plants to prevent whatever pest is causing the damage from spreading.

 

[Silver_Surfer]

Yep, looks like leaf miner damage.

 

[harry]

Spraying the leaves with Malathion seems to have solved the problem.