I am in Michigan and my garden inspector usually finds rust in the fall on 2 or 3 cultivars. It is killed off by our cold winters and I never see it in the spring. This summer was extremely wet so I am sure he will probably find some rust again.

I didn't know Bayer 3 in 1 would help. I use it every spring to keep thrips and spider mites at bay. Now I'll apply it in the fall as well. I have an extensive case of rust right now that started with Lillian's Jinger Bred. Luckily, our winters have always been cold enough to kill the rust. While I cut back the first ones to break out with rust to try to stop the spread, it is so pervasive now I will just wait until the first frost to cut back the foliage like usual. I don't have time to look at the foliage closely this time of year, so it doesn't bother me. In the past when I severely cut back the foliage on affected plants it severely reduced bud counts the following year.

Debra

Do you mean the rust reduces the amount of buds or the cutting back?

For me, the cutting back of the foliage reduced the buds the following year, especially on evergreens and semi evergreens. The dormants didn't seem to be affected as much. And plants that had rust that I didn't cut back performed in their usual way.

Debra

..Terrific.

I heard the same thing from a vendor I bought from last spring (the year of my first rust outbreak). With new vendors in marginal zones I always ask about the rust situation and she specifically warned me not to cut back all the foliage in the fall should I encounter rust. She didn't say why though, and since I had never had rust I didn't think to ask why. I assume it's for the same reason that you don't cut back green daffodil foliage. It's supplying energy to the bulbs. Anyway, interesting observation from you Debra, that made me remember that vendors warning to me......Maryl

We cut back our foliage every fall and I see no difference in bud count etc on those versus the ones not cut back. Of course we have pretty much year round growing so that may have something to do with it.

I am bumping this up since I have questions about rust!

This is what I posted on a different thread:

Also ... Because I try to grow organically, I attempt to stay away from fungicides/pesticides/etc. Unfortunately, I get aphids, thrips, and rust. Fall is the worst time for all those daylily woes. I have several daylilies that seem to be rust buckets. They are like a magnet to rust fungus. They are all NOIDs, so I have no idea of the cultivars.

Well, today, I noticed one that looked pretty bad due to rust and aphids. I removed most of the leaves/blades from it. Right next to it is a much larger daylily and not a speck of rust on it. I am wondering if older, more established daylilies are more rust resistant or are some cultivars just less prone to rust attacks? I say that because most of my larger plants don't seem to be bothered much by rust. Maybe they are larger because they aren't stunted by rust fungus? I think most of mine are indeed prone to rust, but those few that rarely show any signs of rust and just keep growing green and beautiful always amaze me, especially when the rest of my daylilies are looking pretty ugly. And then all the pests and diseases/funguses subside and my daylilies look nice and healthy again with their new growth. The high humidity here in FL ... it is always short-lived to have perfect looking plants without treatment. I wondered, too, if a daylily was exposed enough times to rust, could it become immune to the fungus if it is an otherwise healthy plant? I don't believe I've ever lost a daylily to rust, but I do know when they are weak, they get attacked by everything!

Any info I would greatly appreciate!

beckygardener said:I am bumping this up since I have questions about rust!

I wondered, too, if a daylily was exposed enough times to rust, could it become immune to the fungus if it is an otherwise healthy plant? I don't believe I've ever lost a daylily to rust, but I do know when they are weak, they get attacked by everything!

Any info I would greatly appreciate!

I have heard that it is possible for a daylily to become resistant to rust over time but I don't know if that is completely true or not. But of course the healthier a plant is the better chance of fighting disease I would assume.

I have heard the expression "GRAD" used many times, it is short for GOT RUST AND DIED. Now I don't know if these actually died from rust or the rust just weakened it and it died from something else. They may have also been so puny and weak that the owner of the plant tossed it and considered it dead.

You will find a lot of views on rust, some talk openly about it while others will not. here is a link to the yahoo daylily rust forum (you will need to join to read/participate http://groups.yahoo.com/neo/gr... It hasn't had much activity lately though

I think some of mine over time have become more robust in resisting rust. But that may be hope triumphing more than fact.

In the past, when each clump finished flowering, I always cleaned them up by removing leaves. At the moment I am about to start the regimen recommended to me by Michelle elsewhere (and also mentioned in this thread). I am also starting a better fertilising regimen beginning with Epsom's Salts this weekend.

I see elsewhere that organic milk to 10 parts water has been recommended as a fungicide. I haven't tried it.
http://www.abc.net.au/gardenin...

Glen, you'll have the cats out in the garden, licking it off the leaves! Maybe they will keep the birds away though!

Michele - Thanks for suggesting that yahoo group. I joined it and have been reading through the posts.

Glen - I, too, have considered Michele's regime in combating rust. I won't be doing all of it, but some of her ideas may work for me! Being an organic gardener, that is my dilemma....

Not too sure about the "milk" idea that you posted a link to! I don't know which would smell worse .... fish emulsion or spoiled milk ....

One of the nice people on the rust yahoo group suggested I read this fine article:

http://www.daylilybreeder.blog...

Now I need a list of the cultivars that show good resistance to rust to use in my breeding program to create some cultivars that I can name after my loved ones and to gift to them in the future! That is my goal. I already have a garden full of rust buckets to expose any resistant plants and seedlings to! And I do have some plants that appear to show reasonable resistance or at least tolerance to rust. I read on the above blog link that some "red" blooming daylilies show some resistance. Is that true? Anyone care to chime in on their observations of rust resistant plants? What about cultivars that are believed to be resistant to rust? Would love to have some names or a link that has a list of cultivar names, please!

Becky, why don't you select for certain foliage traits as well. Look at improving rust resistance and foliage: they might go together. One of the big criticisms of daylily fanciers and hybridisers that keeps popping up in garden magazines is their lack of interest in foliage; that is, the flower is everything and foliage is something that gets in the way and should be out of the way. I suspect it is going to be the next "big thing" in hybridising one day.

Popping on here before work ....

Glen - Hmmmm .... I wonder what traits would be desirable in foliage? How many different types of foliage are there now? I have only really noticed 2. The wide blades and the thin blades. All of mine typically get lots of leaves/blades during the growing season. Which is why I like to use them in a border. During winter, those that are dormant usually don't last in my yard. Most sev and ev lose their leaves in Fall/Winter to me pulling or cutting them off (due to rust). Would love to hear more about "desirable" foliage.

I am definitely going to be breeding with rust resistance in mind. My main goal is to be able to name and register some for my beloved family members and some friends. I want to be able to give them as special gifts in the future to the named person. But I know most of them would not "treat with chemicals" their daylilies for rust, so that is a must to have a rust resistant daylily to share with them. I want them to love the plant, not despise it.

I bought a ton of daylilies before I learned about rust. I then did research on every single plant and threw out the ones that were susceptible to rust in the fall last year and in spring this year, I continued to get rid of any and every daylily that could cause me a problem. In the early fall of this year I noticed that almost every single daylily had rust!! I threw out at least a hundred daylilies to make sure this did not happen!! I knew that the weather conditions in my area would become a breeding ground for rust. All my daylilies are rust resistant yet they still have it!!

You can look in the data base for rust resistance for most daylilies also certain nurseries like Maryott's will point out the ones with good or bad resistance but I think most say nothing and I did not know why. Anyway I learned a valuable lesson, just buy what you like and cross these bridges when you get to them because you will not be able to enjoy them otherwise. The nurseries have a spraying program so I do not know how much residue would be on the daylilies when you get them if any. I know for sure that they wash the mess out of them because you can hardly tell they were ever in dirt. LOL.

I have read different articles and one said just cut off the foliage and another said, 'never cut off the foliage'. Not cutting the foliage is a good option if you have a spray program but what about the rest of us?? Most foliage dyes in the winter anyway so maybe a good time to use this to your advantage and whack it off and do a good clean-up because the spores will hide and spread from plant to plant. I live in zone 8 and have mostly evergreen daylilies and I can tell you most are laying on the ground and the foliage is very sick looking where it has been frozen and thawed several times. Is this foliage going to heal itself in spring or grow new foliage from inside the damaged stuff. Yeah, it grows new foliage also just like the dormants.

I did purchase a systematic product that is in a granular form and I will sprinkle around in the spring. I am not sure about using the spray that I bought I wanted to try other more organic things first. I found a good article in 'Fine Gardening' where a lady had good results with 'Aspirin Spray'. People do add an aspirin to their water jug for different things like boosting the immune system in plants, and extending the life of cut flowers. But if you add more aspirin it will help the plants immune system to rust. You will have to read it for your self I think you will like it.

Scroll down and you will see it. Here is the link.

http://www.finegardening.com/h...

http://www.finegardening.com/h...

I guess it doesn't make any difference where you live rust can show up and usually does in the late summer or early fall. Here we have no winter to help control it so spraying all year is our only recourse. I do believe the rust problem is not near the problem as it was when it first broke out in 2001. At that time we grew over 1200 registered daylilies and several thousand seedling and the worse thing before 2001 was something called "leaf streak", I still do not know to this day if I have ever had or seen "leaf streak". When rust was discovered in the southeast there were many commercial daylily gardens shut down by state inspectors including ours. There recommendations were, cut the foliage to the ground, put it in garbage bags to be picked up with the garbage, and spray with several different things that were being used for rust on farm crops, such as peanuts, soy beans, corn, and other crops. These inspectors really had no idea because this was something brand new to daylilies, but over the years with daylily people and the AHS using different products through trial and error we now have 3-4 chemicals that work really well(Michele has already listed them). We would like for everything to be organic also but doing what we do on the scale we do it is not possible.

tink3472 said:We cut back our foliage every fall and I see no difference in bud count etc on those versus the ones not cut back. Of course we have pretty much year round growing so that may have something to do with it.

This is good to hear! Even in zone 8 my Evergreens look dead and/or lethargic. I do not believe this is going to revive itself. It will die the rest of the way when new growth starts coming out. By the way I cut these back when I saw they had rust and that was around the end of October then new growth appeared quickly and was lush and green, no rust. Then the freezing weather and so they are sick looking in a different way. They seem to be yelling 'Help me, please help me!' LOL.

Evergreens from Floyd Cove.

I had rust really bad this year. I cut the foliage back and was hoping for a good, hard freeze to kill the rust. So far, we are starting out with a cold winter, but time will tell.

Susan, I think my daylilies are saying the same thing