EasyBloom Forum

Both my purple coneflower plant and my Autumn Joy Sedum have tiny spots on all the leaves. The sedum seems to die off in some areas. Is this a disease or an insect problem. What do I do?

Hey Kathleen...What color are those spots? If they are black or brown, I would say that it is likely a disease problem. If that's the case, I would remove the affected leaves as you don't want the disease to spread. Also, removing some leaves will increase the airflow around the plant (I'm talking specifically about your coneflower). Increasing airflow around the plant will generally decrease the relative humidity around the plant. Disease-causing agents, especially fungi, thrive in moist conditions. That increased airflow will decrease the rate of infection.

You could probably use a neem oil spray to help prevent further infection.

If the spots on the leaves are very, very small and kind of look like pepper, this to me sounds like spider mites. Do you see any spider webs around the leaves? Especially on the underside of the leaves? If that's the case, you can find many sprays that will deal with spider mite. In fact you can make your own if you like. There are many different recipes out there, but it basically consists of water, rubbing alcohol and dishwasher soap. As you can tell from those ingredients, there are sprays available that do not require harsh chemicals to help mitigate the problem. I hope this is helpful information. Let me know if you have any further questions. Cheers...Dr. Robby

Robby, actually the spots on the sedum are brown, very small. I don't see webs of any kind but I'm going to spray anyway. The spots are all over the plant in varying degrees, so I would hate to star breaking away the stalks. There does not seem to be an airflow problem with my coneflower where it is located. Even the new leaves show signs of getting the spots which are light green or yellow. some leaves seem to have been chewed on...rabbits maybe. Could it be the crazy weather we have had...I got very hot 90 degrees in April. Everything is 2-3 week early. We have had little to no rain up to last week when it finally rained for most of a day. It has been very very hot most of May. Could it be the plants are stressed. Thanks for the advice. Kathleen