Plant Rust Passed In Seeds?

In a couple of months I'm going to have a zillion blackberry lily seeds. The plants have been infected with rust. I was wondering if anyone knew if rust could be carried by seeds either externally or by genes.

X

The rust itself isn't passed on through seeds, but the tendency to be more prone to rust or more resistant to it is genetic. So if your original blackberry lilies are ones that are prone to rust, chances are most of the babies will be too and if you grow them in conditions that are favorable for rust then they will likely get it too. The best way to control rust is either to purchase resistant cultivars, or make sure to clean up any rusty leaves rather than leaving them on the ground, and then do a preventative spray with an antifungal next year before the rust has a chance to get started.

So are you saying that plants grown from seeds harvested from a plant with rust will be more prone to getting rust?

X

Generally, but not necessarily. I'm not a plant geneticist so I don't know all the intricacies of the rust-resistance genes in plants. Honestly even when you have a plant that is more resistant to rust, the only way to guarantee that'll be passed on to its offspring is to propagate it by cuttings, etc rather than seed. But if you've got a group of plants that are all susceptible to rust, odds are the vast majority of the seedlings would be susceptible as well.

I'm not super familiar with blackberry lilies, but they're not one of the plants I see people complaining all the time about rust problems, so it could be if you start cleaning up fallen leaves better and give them a preventative spray early in the year that could take care of the problem for you. I don't think they're as bad as something like hollyhocks that are very susceptible to rust and will get it almost no matter what.

Sigh .. I guess I'll toss the whole plant and not harvest any seeds .. I've been spraying regularly with Bayer Advance, removing all infected leaves and the new growth is coming in clean. I was planning to keep the seeds and toss the plants and treat the bed this fall with a granular fungicide and start over.

The amazing thing is that my roses have had no problems what-so-ever.

Thanks!

X

There's no reason to toss the whole plant, if you clean up the garden properly this fall and then do a little preventative spraying next year before symptoms show up you may not have problems next year. Rust isn't fatal and it will only spread to other plants that are susceptible to rust (many plants aren't really susceptible) so I don't see the harm in leaving the plant there. Or even if you give up on this plant, if you're willing to do a little cleanup this year (which it sounds like you're already doing) and a little preventative spraying in the future there's no reason you can't start your seeds.