What's eating my pot marigold 'pacific beauty'?

Pot Marigold 'Pacific Beauty' is a natural trap crop — its sticky resin actively lures aphids, whiteflies, and thrips away from nearby plants. Slugs attack seedlings in cool, wet conditions. Calendula is genuinely useful as pest bait, but those same pests can disfigure the plant itself if populations build up.

Dense colonies on stems and buds cause leaf curl, stunted shoots, and sticky honeydew that fosters sooty mould; calendula's resin attracts them strongly. Blast off with a strong water jet; apply insecticidal soap or neem oil; tolerate light infestations if using calendula deliberately as a trap crop to protect vegetables.

Adults and nymphs suck sap from undersides of leaves, causing yellowing and weak, stunted growth; sticky honeydew deposits encourage sooty mould. Use yellow sticky traps to monitor and reduce adult numbers; spray with insecticidal soap or neem oil, targeting leaf undersides.

Fine silver-brown streaking and distortion on petals and upper leaf surfaces; flowers may fail to open properly. Remove and dispose of heavily infested flowers; apply insecticidal soap or spinosad spray; reflective mulch deters thrips from landing.

Seedlings and young stems are rasped or severed at soil level in cool, damp conditions, often overnight. Apply iron phosphate slug bait around seedlings; use a grit or crushed eggshell barrier; hand-pick in the evening after rain.