Seedfork said:Are any studies of daylily rust currently being conducted?
Yes.
Seedfork said:Has any University done any studies in the past few years checking for rust resistant cultivars?
Yes. But consider that there are almost 80,000 registered daylilies, although not all are still around. Are they all going to get formally and scientifically tested? Just not going to happen.
Seedfork said:Have they given up on it as a hopeless task?
No.
Seedfork said:Do they feel rust is pretty much under control? Do they feel chemicals are the answer?
Can't answer for them but I doubt it on both counts. Usually with plant diseases the preferred option is to breed/grow resistant cultivars.
Seedfork said:I don't know the answer to any of the above questions there seems so much still to learn, but maybe there is just no money set aside for research.
The AHS still funds research. There may be other research going on that we won't know about until the results are published. Remember, prior to fifteen years ago there was no daylily rust in North America and it takes time to get funding, get the plants, thoroughly set up and conduct the study, figure out the results, get publication accepted, get published.
Seedfork said: If a plant (this is all hypothetical) showed no rust, yet all plants around it did in my garden, and that plant was rated as "Shows Susceptibility" in other gardens, why would I not be just as justified in changing that to "Shows Resistance", as opposed to the other way around?
Because even though other daylilies around it are affected and it isn't doesn't mean it isn't in some kind of microclimate and therefore not getting the right environmental conditions (for example it may be in better air circulation on the corner of a bed), or is slow to show rust (unless you count that as being resistant). It's possible for one's rating to change during the season for an individual cultivar.
Seedfork said: Yet, I do wonder how many times this has actually happened that the ratings were switched?
I've no idea either but it means that the rating that appears when you look up a plant is potentially only one person's experience and I would therefore give more credence to a rating of susceptible than a rating of resistant. Having said that, there is also the potential issue of misdiagnosis.
