Anyone ever seen this before and know whats doing it ? not sure if the pictures are good enough for you to see what I'm talking about but the stem from where it leaves the soil and about a 1 1/2 to 2 inches up something has eaten the outer layer of my stem in complete circle, any ideas on what did this? Thanks in advance for any help
Holy poop tea!
bastards! .... I'm not sure mate, I've not seen this before,... it ate all soft tissue, skipped the xylem,... I'm leaning toward some kind of "worm", usually a caterpillar, or bettle larvae, pretty mobile,.. snacks and then hides,... hopefully somebody else will have seen this,..I'll look into it myself too! The plant is a goner though, that layer of conductive tissue is the same as on a tree, which if your strip down to wood in a ring, will kill it,... sugars, proteins, etc are carried by this tissue (phloem)..... I'd set out a bait plant, something bugs like a cheap annual or something,...lay sticky traps around it at the base maybe,... a rodent, I don't think they'd bother nibbling away at the outer layer like that,....