Sorry, I always ask the same thing, but really can't distinguish yet. That red "powder" stays on my hand if I rub my fingers on it.
Feel free to hate me

If there is a powder that rubs off on your hands it is rust.

That doesn't look like rust to me. Spider mite damage will cause the bronzing effect seen in your photos.
To check for spider mites,try holding a piece of paper under the leaves of the plant and shake them gently. If it is spider mites, specks will usually fall on the paper that looks similar to pepper.

I agree it's not rust. I don't think daylily rust is recorded in Italy anyway. It does look like spider mite damage.

Thanks a lot.
I know spider mites are there, there's been a real bad infestation, I can see them running on the plants. I used mineral oil and most are gone but not completely- I now have a specific product that kills adults larvae and eggs. I asked for rust because I was confused. My thought now is to use spider mites insecticide and for not using too much chemicals I read about some natural method against fungus, so I plan to boil some garlic in water and use the solution around the plants, it may help to kill spores in the ground and it's not harmful for plants. what do you think?

Sue, I don't understand this thing about rust. We have rust on many plants. They are fungus in the Pucciniacee family. So it is the daylily rust. I guess it's not specific to daylilies. Or did I read something wrong?

cybersix said:Thanks a lot.
I know spider mites are there, there's been a real bad infestation, I can see them running on the plants. I used mineral oil and most are gone but not completely- I now have a specific product that kills adults larvae and eggs. I asked for rust because I was confused. My thought now is to use spider mites insecticide and for not using too much chemicals I read about some natural method against fungus, so I plan to boil some garlic in water and use the solution around the plants, it may help to kill spores in the ground and it's not harmful for plants. what do you think?

I've never heard of using garlic as a drench to fight daylily rust. I would be more concerned about rust on plants than with spores on the ground.
Using a teaspoon or two of dishwashing liquid in a gallon of water to spray leaves has to be more effective than using a garlic solution as a soil drench.

Judy I've read that too but mainly for insects not fungi. Garlic seems effective against fungi.
But I can try that, maybe not today because we're having some quick thunderstorms. Spores can be in the soil, I guess, or not?

Sabrina, there are something like 7,000 different plant rusts, and most are specific to certain plants. Only daylilies and Patrinia can be infected by daylily rust (although there has been a case in another plant in the daylily family, Dianella).

Your pictures do not look like daylily rust at all. Check out this FAQ page, scroll down to the images for differentiating:

http://web.ncf.ca/ah748/FAQ.ht...

Yes diluted dish soap as a leaf spray can work for daylily rust, this was shown in a scientific study. Not as effective as a systemic fungicide but still worked to some extent. I believe it was probably lemon "flavour" which is what is preferred for insects. You can also buy fungicidal soap products for plants.

Daylily rust spores do not primarily live in the soil. They could get washed off a plant by rain or irrigation and then splashed back up. Primarily they are wind blown. But you don't have daylily rust

Sue, I'm really happy I have not rust, believe me! And I'm happy spores don't live in the ground!
I was trying to understand, since I read daylily rust is Puccinia and the rusts we have here are of the same family too. The grower saw the same pictures and told me I have both spider mites and rust!!!!! I can't live like this, too much panic
So I will use that acaricide and that's it.
But... I have some other plants that have like brown/black spots on leaves, they get yellow and fall. So can I be sure it won't affect daylilies too, whatever it is?

Daylily rust is Puccinia hemerocallidis. It is a fungus in the family Pucciniaceae which has close to 5,000 different rust species in it. If you compare that to daylilies, Puccinia would be equivalent to Hemerocallis (genus) and Pucciniaceae to Hemerocallidaceae (family).

The grower perhaps does not know what daylily rust looks like. I would be more concerned that his comment means there is unrecorded rust in Italy but given that your pictures don't look at all like daylily rust I'm inclined to guess that he hasn't seen it. Some people call any plant problem with a rusty colour "rust" when it isn't actually caused by a rust fungus.

Plant diseases are often specific to certain plants. There are some that affect many different plants. Most of the leaf diseases that affect daylilies are not those that affect many other plants. Can you post pictures of the other plant problems?

The grower just told me that at his place he doesn't have any problem. But he lives in a totally different area.

Anyway, I will take your advice and live in peace for at least two days until the next panick attack strikes me
here are the pictures. The real bad leaves are in the garbage I made some cleaning this morning. The plant is four o'clock.




I see something similar on the neighbour's hedge that here and there is in direct contact with some of my plants.

You mean you can go a whole two days between panic attacks?

I will check diseases for Mirabilis, a quick look at a list on the web just now did not show anything in common with daylilies. Are you sure your four o clock problem isn't also related to spider mites?

Not sure abot two days!

I thought about spider mites too! At first I thought at black spot and used a rose fungicide on them but nothing happened.
I'm waiting for rain to go away to use my new acaricide (is that a word in english?) so I will spray mirabilis too. I see signs of mites on yung seedlings too, so it's time to go for real action. I have to gift some plants and seedlings to a friend.

It wouldn't be black spot unless they were roses. You probably need to be watering more to help reduce the spider mites. Don't worry as much about getting the leaves wet because of fungal disease potential. The spider mites love hot and dry conditions and may do more damage than any leaf fungal disease you are likely to get there, plus they may help leaf streak get started. Using fungicides can cause other pest problems so it's better not to use them if you can avoid it and especially if you're using something that doesn't work for whatever problem you have anyway. That can also happen with insecticides, some cause an increase in spider mite populations for example.

To me a lot of the problems being shown look like the plants are not getting enough water. Daylilies love water.

Thanks Sue and Larry. Sue, the Mirabilis gets more water than DLs, it's in a pot over a container with clay balls (I don't know what to call them) and I keep it always humid. But when the sun hits hard we can have 104F.
I don't water often by hand because with this strange soil a lot of wet and humidity stays trapped under the surface. Today it's the first day of light showers in a month, I always check the soil before watering. Maybe I can do a quick shower to DLs day by day? Humidity it's very high even if it's hot, it's a characteristic of these zones.

Tomorrow it should rain again, so until tuesday I don't plan to use anything. The insecticide I'm talking about it's for spider mites only and their eggs. I guess having more natural enemies for many pests would be helpful but it seems there aren't any here!

A shower of water could help cool the plants. Plants cool themselves by transpiration but transpiration rate is reduced when humidity is high. When I said insecticide I was just giving an example, I wasn't referring to your acaricide, sorry if I confused you.

No problem Sue, it's me not you
Good for the shower, I'll ask the babies if they want a shampoo too!

If you're going to give them a shampoo best to do it early in the day before it gets hot because soapy things themselves can damage plants especially under hot dry conditions. Some people leave the soap solution on for a while and then rinse it off with plain water before the sun gets high. You could also try the shampoo in the evening when it is cooler and the soap effect will last longer.