Advice about Rust!

yes, the dreaded rust! lol in my area, it is practically impossible to avoid. however, the last two winters were cold enough to eliminate it from my garden. i did get it back last summer on some new purchases. i didnt worry about it too much, i figured the winter would kill it. no such luck! it has been so mild, my garden is covered. the plants are also growing and lush. so i hate to cut it all back. i have some Heritage coming and i got Banner Maxx to alternate.

i am sure the best thing would be to cut it all back and spray. just wondering if any had removed the infected leaves and sprayed with success. and, in the end, would it matter that much, since they regrow quickly. thanks

tracie

IMO cutting them all back too much this early in the year could mean less flowers as the plants try to grow back their foliage?
I think the rust is a mold spore? or something airborne? If that is the case, cutting them back may not matter as the rust will just be blown on the surrounding soil and what is left of the plants and the new growth will probably be affected. Of course if you sprayed them, maybe that would do the trick. I don't know, sorry :)

Rust is a never ending battle here. You can cut the foliage back if you want to or just leave it and spray; being in your area it shouldn't hurt your blooms. When people get spring shipments the foiliage is cut back and in the south since things grow so fast you shouldn't have a problem with blooms, I haven't. More Northern states are probably different since the growing season is shorter. The bigger hybridizers down south don't go out and cut all their foilage if they find rust, they just spray. The fungicide will kill the rust and eventually that foliage will die off. Now if you don't want ugly foliage where the rust was then you may want to cut it.
I have done both; cut the foliage and then sprayed and just sprayed without cutting.

However, since you have rust spores on the daylilies I would highly suggest using a contact fungicide, such as Daconil, along with the systemic (can be mixed together) especially if you leave the foilage uncut. Make sure you get under the foilage as best you can since the contact only kills what it touches. I always make sure I spray the systemic near the base of the daylily as well as the foliage since some of the systemics only travel upward inside the plant. I believe that there are only a couple that go up and down and they are not readily available. The Daconil you can get it at a Lowes type store or garden stores usually. They say if you spray the systemic alone on the spores it can cause a resistant strain to emerge. The systemic is for what's going on inside the daylily where as the contact is for the outside. Also, use a little dish soap in the sparayer so the chemicals will adhere to the foliage better. I've read that rust only emerges during certain temperatures, but I totally disagree because I have had rust pop up even in the 90 some odd degree weather that it's not suppose to. Probably has something to do with the humidity here.

It is airborne and if someone 60 miles down the road has rust it can blow to your yard especially if they don't treat it. My spray routine will begin next week before any starts breaking out here. Good luck with yours