We purchased a couple of Bee Balm plants about a week ago. I put them in a cedar planter, along with another Bee Balm plant that we've had for a while that was planted in the ground. The transplanted BB wasn't doing good in the ground. The leaves don't look healthy, they've got white spots all over them. I'm wondering if the unhealthy one is diseased and should be discarded so as not to infect the healthier plants. That same kind of spotty leaf is also on another plant, but it wasn't near it. Also, what is the difference between Bee Balm and Grand Mum Bee Balm? The Grand Mum is the one that's sickly looking. I've attached a comparison of the healthy and sickly looking leaves.

Spotty leaves on transplanted GMBB



Healthy leaves on BB

It looks like insect damage. Have you looked at the bottom of the leaves for any insects?

every I get another BB color
this year I managed to find the only BB plant at that nursery
it was overlooked when they pulled them off the selling table
powdery mildew is the disease they said
she told me it would weaken and die,
SHE WOULD SELL IT TO ME FOR HALF PRICE
I will never go back there again
I did take the plant SHAME ON THAT
anyway if you really want it try this it worked for me
in a spray bottle a healthy squirt of ajax lemon dishsoap, fill with h2o, shake it up
gently with your hand cupped around the plant,spray the plant and while hand washing the plant. runoff soap h2o into surrounding soil. shade from strong sun.check next day for white spots.if you see `em, repeat the gentle hand washing. two days later I saw a minute bit of white,so I repeated the washing. a few days later I did it again
it`s been six weeks later, after hi humidity, rain, more hi humidity, more rain it`s looking
very good and in a growth spert. I`m lucky
mildew will overwinter in the soil so I`ll still look for something for that, maybe that soapy water every so often
it`s easy cheep and worked this year
p.s. the BB is rich drk purple

DaisyI said:It looks like insect damage. Have you looked at the bottom of the leaves for any insects?

No, I haven't. What kind of bugs would I be looking for?

Tisha said:
...
mildew will overwinter in the soil so I`ll still look for something for that, maybe that soapy water every so often
it`s easy cheep and worked this year

So you're saying it's mildew, and it survives during winter? If that's the case, I'm not so fond of the plant that I want to risk the mildew spreading to the new ones next to it. The other plant that had similar looking leaves was a blue-purple sage on the other side of the house. I didn't know what to do with it, so I pruned it off way down. Maybe I'll just chuck that one too.

powdery mildew is everywhere
a lot of plants are susceptible to it
try to buy plts that are more resistant
some BB`s are more resistant than others
no matter what it`s out there
it seems to me to be a matter of overall seasonal maintenance
i.e. spring with it`s humidity and other environmental conditions bring about mildew fungi, in summer it`s blackspot, late summer early fall it`s time for rust season for plts that are prone to these fungi spores
homemade concoctions for powdery mildew that contain baking soda [ a salt ] or vinegar should be tested on each type of plant to check the plt for it`s tolerance/sensitivity. early in the season [ powdery mildew season ] try commercial Serenade [organic I think ]
later in season for other fungi [blackspot] try Sonata
I`m probably wrong
neem oil works on chewing insects

daconil

Bee balm is very prone to powdery mildew although some cultivars are more resistant. It's hard to tell from a picture but the spots look too well defined for powdery mildew so I'm inclined to agree with Daisy that it may be some kind of pest - it would be a pest that punctures the leaf and sucks up the sap rather than a chewing insect.

From what I've read Grand Mum bee balm is a smaller plant than "regular" bee balm.

They are also prone to whitefly- if its a bug that moves and not the p.mildew

don`t forget to keep us informed on your findings
i like `em and acquiring more cultivation info

kittriana said:They are also prone to whitefly- if its a bug that moves and not the p.mildew

I found this link about whiteflies. Says they're active during the day, good, cuz I hate going out in the middle of the night looking for bugs!

http://www.almanac.com/pest/wh...

bump or wiggle the plant a little white flies will....fly
one of my favorite gardening tools is a magnifying glass
some pests are sooo tiny
you will see the tiny whiteflies without one

Tisha said:bump or wiggle the plant a little white flies will....fly
one of my favorite gardening tools is a magnifying glass
some pests are sooo tiny
you will see the tiny whiteflies without one

Just did that, yep, little white flies!

Brinybay said:

Just did that, yep, little white flies!

I want to use something that's not toxic to bees and can be found easily, don't care to run or even call all over town to find specialty stuff.

it `em with the soapy h2o spray today while you`re waiting for a answer from someone
who knows
maybe it`ll be on the kitchen shelf

Brinybay said:

Just did that, yep, little white flies!

Are they actually flying or jumping?

Tisha said:it `em with the soapy h2o spray today while you`re waiting for a answer from someone
who knows
maybe it`ll be on the kitchen shelf

I got some neem oil from my favorite nursery. From what I found online, it's ok for bees. One source said to use it evening or early morning when bees aren't active. There aren't many out and about at this time, plus the blooms on the bee balms are gone, so it should be ok to use it now.

sooby said:

Are they actually flying or jumping?

I couldn't tell, but I wasn't paying much attention. What is the significance of that? There weren't any when I checked again just now. I doused the plants with the neem oil I bought. I used it on the rose too, there were a couple of whiteflies that did what looked like Immelmann manuevers and a split S, so I guess they were flying. Nice scent, that neem oil stuff!

The significance would be in the pest ID, some fly and some jump.

where`s my magnifying glass?
little `pests`