Sue - In all honesty, I don't know where the rust information comes from in the database here on ATP, but I would sure be interested to know. It totally confuses me and I am in a rust zone, so that information could be helpful to me if I could figure out the real significance of it all.

Sue, is there any evidence for vinegar working as a fungicide or a palliative if sprayed onto the foliage?

Becky, this page explains where the numerical values on ATP come from. I believe this was done by Chalyse:

http://garden.org/barn/notes/r...

The other format (shows susceptibility or resistance, not numerical) is input from a single ATP member, whoever edited the data last.

Glen, not that I can think of. Since vinegar is herbicidal if strong enough I don't think I'd want to try it although I see there are some "recipes" on the web. Dishwashing liquid has been shown to work for daylily rust though so would probably be a safer bet out of the household remedies.

Sue - Thank you for that link! I have starred your post so I can find it again. (I can't star the ATP linked page.)

Interesting about the soapy water possibly helping with the rust issue. I may find out. I've been so busy with work and preparing for the holidays that I had not really been checking my daylilies. Well, a couple of days ago I did and noticed that they ALL had a horrible aphid infestation. When I say infestation ... I am not exaggerating. It is the worst I've ever seen! That is the problem with no winter this year so far ... the bugs have multiplied far worse than is typical. Normally I would see the ladybugs come in to rid my aphid problem, but I only saw 1 on over 250 plants. So the ladybugs must be hibernating or something. Geez! You can see the aphids and ants in this photo. Needless to say, they got the soapy water treatment. Used the original Dawn liquid soap and sprayed the foliage on every single daylily. :



This is what my daylilies look like currently. Photo taken after I cleaned up the beds. The aphid issue killed a lot of the leaves.... so much for multiplying this year ....

Seedling bed:



New key-hole raised bed with most all of the registered daylilies:



A few registered daylilies were also planted in this other smaller raised bed in front of my vertical herb garden:



I've had a warm, wet Winter so far. It will be interesting to see how it affects the daylilies concerning rust. Boy! That would be something if the Dawn soapy water helps control the rust! That would be amazing!!!!

Glen - If you use dish-washing liquid treatments, be sure to use the soap that does NOT have antibacterial compound in it! You don't want to kill the microbes in your soil. I believed I used 2 teaspoons per gallon of water. Sprayed the top and underside of the foliage. I could hear the plants sighing with relief!

The original daylily rust research that tested dishwashing liquid (probably lemon "flavour", agree not antimicrobial) used it at 1% which I think works out at more than two teaspoons per gallon (I did work it out somewhere in an ATP thread I think, don't remember where). Maybe better to dilute it by percent, especially if Australia is the same as here in Canada where a gallon is not the same as a US gallon. Does it work for rust at a lower concentration than 1% - don't know so it will be interesting to see your results Becky.

Becky, I should have worded my explanation a little better. Sue is correct in saying the reason for some showing a 2.5 rating and also being resistant and susceptible is due to two totally different systems being viewed. For instance now that I mistakenly asked to have 'Red Volunteer' marked as "Shows Susceptibility" , it rated a 1.1 in the studies, but the second rating system here on ATP now shows it as Susceptible, but the two rating systems are in fact not actually related to each other.
Now I have once again maybe worded that wrong...because I have no idea what the actual criteria are for the ATP rating for the "Shows Resistant" or "Shows Susceptibility".
So maybe I was correct in asking for the rating to be changed, and maybe I was wrong. I do know that the actual studies and the decimal rating right now carry more weight for me. The other rating system for now is pretty much meaningless, and I will now count on the wonderful comments that are pouring in under the new Daylily of the Day program for each gardeners observation on rust.
If a plant I am interested in gets a lot of good reviews (especially from my immediate area) I will be more willing to try a plant.

Sue - Hmmm .... 1% of a gallon. How to figure that out? My brain can't figure out that conversion because what measurement would you use to figure out the 1%? I believe there is 16 cups per gallon of water. Would it be something like 1/4 of a cup?

The 2 teaspoons per gallon made quite a foamy batch of spray. Looked pretty soapy to me. I also saw the aphids literally sliding off the leaves when I sprayed with the soapy water. They let go of the plants pretty quickly and were washed right off the plant into the ground below. Instant kill perhaps? Plants were smiling afterwards. They seriously looked perked up after spraying the foliage! They were in desperate need from the looks of it. Whew!

I saw rust on some of my daylilies several weeks ago. Right around Thanksgiving. But no active rust now. We had a cool snap not too long ago when it got down into the 50's at night. That's as cold as it got. Been warm otherwise. Hard to feel like the holidays when you are running the A/C and breaking out a sweat when you go outside. (I was so looking forward to some cooler weather as we had a very, very long and hot Spring/Summer/Fall this year.) I feel like I live at the equator.

Larry - I totally agree with you about the Daylily of the Day feature. On my very tight budget, I don't like to waste money on something that will not grow and thrive here. I found out about rust when growing out hundreds of seedlings and then finding this forum on ATP. I knew nothing about daylilies before that, though I did know about rust. (But not daylily rust. I get rust on other plants as well.)

128 fluid oz. to the gal. so 1.28 fluid oz. would be one percent. One cup is 8 fluid oz. so just over an eighth of a cup! That's about as good as my math skills get.

Larry - Good math skills! You nailed it! Thank you!

1/8 a cup is a lot of soap!

According to my conversions app, 1 US gallon = 256 US tablespoons. 1% of 256 tablespoons would be 2.56 tablespoons. According to the same app that's 0.16 of a US cup.

Hmmmm ... that sounds like it wouldn't be quite so soapy, which I would think you'd want to use, correct? (Less soap?)

Well, I used 2 teaspoons and got a lot of suds when spraying the plants, so I can't imagine using more.

8oz.x .16=1.28 oz., think that is the same thing.

Elizabeth Salter is shown as having resistance in our database. As of today, it achieved being the worst rust bucket in my garden. As I was spraying it with my right hand and holding the foliage with my left hand, my left hand turned bright orange from the spores being blown off the back of the leaves. It had to be seen to be believed.

Unfortunately, manually, I could not do the photography so you could join in the revulsion

Glen - I can relate. I have several in my garden that get that rusty. It is disgusting!!! Which is why I have been on the search for true rust resistant cultivars to grow in my gardens and to use in my hybridizing program. I will only consider a cultivar if I can get it cheap though, as I don't have the resources to pay top dollar and waste my time growing something that proves susceptible.

I used to be more tolerant of the rust, but the more daylilies I grow (most are seedlings) the less I am willing to tolerate this problem. My hybridizing goal is really narrowing down lately. Rust resistance is quickly becoming my #1 goal. I've decided that a pretty face doesn't look so pretty anymore if the foliage looks terrible. I want the whole package .... pretty blooms AND nice foliage!! I want them to stand out in my garden instead of being an eye sore.

I think I am "finally" starting to toughen up!

Brian Reeder has added a new post to his blog and I think many here may find his work interesting. I really enjoy reading his blogs because he speaks in layman's terms which I find easy to understand. Do check out his newest blog which talks about rust resistance.

http://daylilybreeder.blogspot...

Thanks Becky. I quite enjoyed reading his blogs.

Seedfork said: So it does not appear that the ease with which a plant contracts rust is the measure, but the degree to which it displays rust. ......do the rest of you agree with my interpretation of the rankings?

I agree but would use slightly different wording. It seems the response to rust varies. The most undesirable response is formation of spores over leaves, (sometimes even over front of them too) and scapes. The response of dark patches (maybe cells forming across the stomata like a thin scab) looks bad but at least doesn't spread spores.

Hi started growing daylilies in 2013. I live on the east cast of Australia where it is sub tropical. I bought from growers who did not have rust. Plants in the neighbourhood did not have it. I did not then research which cultivars would suffer badly from rust. Then I bought plants from a market. For a long time the seller denied they had rust. Should have known as she kept pulling leaves off plants. It soon spread. Two years ago I moved from right on the coast to 4 kms inland. Conditions are still extremely favourable to rust, ie. mild temperatures, frequent showers and wind. A couple of frosts each winter, and usually very hot long summers with mild nights.

Some of my plants appear more resistant than others but until I provide good conditions for my plants it is not fair to judge them. Some I bought last year and planted in a different part of the garden seem rust free. Others I have in pots out front where they get hot sun all day so i have to keep them watered and weeded. I think one is a disaster, then after lots of rain it seems vigorous and healthy.

I can imagine your ES experience Glen. I don't mind cleaning cat trays but when the spores are that bad it is really irksome. I was surprised at the ATP rating for JEDI SUE McCORD. It always has spores in my garden so it gets foliage ripped off heaps.

I realised how variable the responses can be even in a single cultivar when I saw that some research showed BARBARA MITCHELL as resistant but others as susceptible.

I think that susceptible is not a good term. It would be better to say 'non-resistant'. Maybe some cultivars have poorer immune systems than others.