Viewing post #342350 by virginiarose

Casshigh said:I have learned to take a more relaxed attitude about rust. Several years ago we had rust to appear for the first time. It came in on a plant that we had gotten from our spring region meeting from a garden from out of state. The two plants next to it had developed rust, too, once the rust was discovered. I cut the foliage back and treated the plants with the Bayer product that we had on hand. It took care of the problem. I had panicked thinking this is the worst thing possible in the daylily world. A year later I found out there is something much worse that can do much more damage to a daylily (kill it), and that is crown rot. Crown rot helped to adjust my attitude about daylily rust. Since our initial experience with rust and buying large numbers of new daylilies arriving in the spring of each year, we get rust on a few of the new additions to the garden. No matter how hard I try to avoid buying daylilies from rust prone areas, I succumb each year and buy some. We get daylilies each spring from a grower in S. Georgia and get rust on their daylilies every year. I have learned to unload them in front of the house away from the main daylily garden, cut the foliage back, place the foliage in a trash bag, spray the plant and scapes (wipe off the scapes first) with a contact spray, once potted drench with Bayer 3 in 1, and put Bayer 3 and 1 granuales on top of the soil in the pot. This has worked for us. Unfortunately, it is the other daylilies that come in the mail that I let slip by me that bring in the rust. We now spray all of our daylilies for rust. If the rust is caught early, a rust outbreak can be avoided. Rust does not usually appear here until the main bloom season is over, so if left alone it would be bearable. I really expected a bad outbreak of rust last summer because of the mild winter we had last year. The only rust we had were in the areas where we had added new plants last spring. I plan to be more proactive this spring with the daylilies coming in the mail and may be able to prevent any rust from coming into our garden, plus continue to spray our daylilies for rust in the spring when we spray for thrips, aphids, spidermites, leaf miners, etc.

Doris