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Courgette leaf damage

MerrickMayfairMerrickMayfair Posts: 13
in Problem solving
Hi 

I'm new to growing vegetables but I'm concerned with what may be a pest or disease on a couple of my courgettes. I've been growing them indoors from seed using compost purchased from a garden centre.

There's some white marks which looks like it's been either eaten or disease damage. I have seen a little black fly near the plant which like like either a fungus gnat or fruit fly. 

Does anyone know what's causing the damage? Can the plants be saved or best to bin them?

Posts

  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    Not sure what’s caused it, but there’s no need to bin them ... those first two leaves are the ‘seed leaves’ aka cotyledons they are already in the seed when sown and will die and drop off anyway when your plants have made enough ‘proper’ leaves to cope. 

    I wouldn’t worry about them ... they look fine ... all plants have little blips and blemishes 
    ... and welcome to the forum by the way 😊 

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • BobTheGardenerBobTheGardener Posts: 11,385
    I agree with Dove - the hard shell of the seed sometimes hangs-on a bit too long and damages the tip of a seed leaf by restricting light - that's probably what happened in the last photo.  There is a thin paper-like coating covering the seed leaves of the cucurbit family when they first emerge and the other photo's may be showing the remains of that.  Nothing to worry about at all. :)
    A trowel in the hand is worth a thousand lost under a bush.
  • GemmaJFGemmaJF Posts: 2,286
    I had one out of ten that was the same this year, the seed leaves were smaller and seemed to come out damaged, particularly down the center line.

    Was one of the first to develop a true leaf though, nature is amazing as the plant seemed to automatically compensate for the poor seed leaves.
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