What makes my beets and swiss chards look like that?

Hello Everybody,

My swiss chards and beets were looking fantastic up to mid last week. Then they started having some discolloration and kind of wilted patches on the leaves. I'll post some pics at the bottom of the thread.

On some of the plants all the leaves went like that and I'm wondering what is causing it. I do have snails and slugs and I think that slugs and snails could create the wilted/discolored patches in some cases but then I also have some leaves that are completely gone with the stems standing up high and still healthy. Wondering if its overwatering but again I dont think I overwatered them. Any ideas? Is it possible that its a fungus or some disease? Is it possible that last weekend when the weather was really hot, the leaves were burnt due to water on them (I'm always quite careful not to make the leaves really wet when watering but some times it happens)?

Have a look at the pics and any ideas are welcomed to save those plants.

 

My guess would be leaf miner.

 

Quite scary... Will they just continue eating away the rest of the plants? Is this goodbye for them? I have not noticed anything alive on the leaves lately. Will do some research and comment again.

Thanks for the replys

 

As Marley Farley said best thing to do is to remove the affected leaves.

 

Apparently another option is to release Diglyphus parasitic wasps on the leaves. They will eat the leaf miners and dont harm the plants or sting us. I'll start with removing the leaves and let you know how it all goes.

 

@N.N Just a thought on the parasitic wasps; many biological controls are mainly used in enclosed environments like poly tunnels and greenhouses. Otherwise they head off to the wide blue yonder or get munched by other predators. Also check the the minimum temperature for them to function/survive.

 

I often find leaf miner goes of it's own accord later in the season .
It can admittedly cause a fair damage though so destroy any leaves you remove.
You can see the bug inside the leaf if you hold it up to the light, and a quick squash works wonders.

 

I posted about the wasps only as info. I have 10 chards and 10 beets so that wouldn't really justify the release of wasps. Didn't spot the problem early enough and also initially thought it was slugs/snails related, then that it was due to over watering. Anyways, the miners did a big damage. The swiss chards were getting ready for the first generous picking and then within two weeks they were completely obliterated by the leaf miners. The beets are doing slightly better but they suffered a lot as well.

Will try to post some pictures of what is left of the chard after I plucked off all the infected leaves and will update on their recovery.

 

Beet leaf miner is an easy pest to recognize. The leaves of the infested plant become marked first with translucent tunnels, then these grow to become blotches. The upper leaf surface takes on the texture of parchment while the lower one eventually turns brown. Further inspection will reveal one or more small whitish larvae (maggots) inside the leaf. The blotches are caused by the larvae as they eat the cells that make up the inside of the leaf, leaving only the upper and lower epidermis intact. The best way is the remove the infected leaves remember you can always sow chard as it grows quick infact i find the more i pick chard more it grows but always check and remove bloched leaves