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| My black eyed susans and hydrangea have a bad case of the fungus blues (or blacks). What's the best spray out there or do you recommend a systemic application?
Thanks! |
Follow-Up Postings:
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| I have had great results with Serenade made by Espoma. |
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- Posted by ken_adrian z5 (My Page) on Fri, Jun 17, 11 at 8:15
| cut off the worst leaves.. and be done with it ... homeowners have the potential to be the greatest polluters on the face of the earth.. thinking there is a chemical solution for every slight problem ... i see no negative impact on the plants in the picture ... BES's are field/wildflowrs.. they are not foo foo .. and really dont .. in most cases.. need any solutions.. they live in the prairie ... to my non-scientific eye.. what you are seeing is a secondary problem to some insult to the leaf a few weeks back .... so there is nothing there but a damaged leaf.. for a fungus to come along ... any history of a hail storm ... a few weeks back??? .. just enough to break the leaf surface.. but not otherwise knock down the plant ???? look deep into the picture.. and a vast majority of the leaves underneath have nothing wrong with them... if it were a disease.. why isnt the whole plant effected???? and in that pic.. it looks like the largest oldest leaves are the damaged ones.... are the growth tips damaged???? what happened back when these were young??? just think long and hard ... before you resort to any applications... chemical or herbal.. or organic ... most of the time .. it just isnt necessary ... good luck ken ps: fungus is external and topical.. how would a systemic work??? |
Here is a link that might be useful: link
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| I agree with Ken. A few years ago, some sort of fungus was attacking some of my echinaceas. Parts of the plant were slowly turning black ang dying. I simply cut off all affected parts and got rid of any debris in the area. My plants were fine after that. I think many people are way too quick to overpray their plants with dangerous chemicals. |
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| thanks, I never had to deal with fungus before. I just didn't want it to kill the plant. I'm not too worried about the BES but I'd hate to lose the hydrangeas. A few weeks ago we had a week of rain and then a week of very high 90 degree temps. I'm sure that was it. As far as using chemicals... if I don't use Bonide Eight insect control on my daylilies I may as well get rid of all 100 of them. The thrips would just eat the buds before opening. They have alraedy started. I have a very small property (.11 acres or 50x100 feet plot) so I'm not the biggest offender out there. |
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- Posted by gardengal48 PNW zone 8 (My Page) on Fri, Jun 17, 11 at 13:38
| Before you use any kind of pesticide, you should know exactly what the problem is you are trying to address. There are scores of different fungicides on the market and they target different types of fungal issues. And some fungal issues are triggered by cultural or climate conditions and really do not need any treatment......they tend to self-correct and/or the plants grow out of it. Not all fungal issues are topical in nature - some are indeed internal or systemic to the plant and often a systemic approach is the most logical. But not in this case :-) I agree that no control/treatment - other than removing and destroying the most unsightly foliage - is necessary. You should also be aware that any fungicide is only preventative - not curative - in its mode of action. It will not magically clean up damaged foliage but only keep the infection from spreading to undamaged foliage. For best results, fungicides should be applied before you see any signs of the problem. btw, are you sure you have thrips? Thrips are tiny sucking insects -- they don't "eat" plants or flowers :-) And they are typically quite effectively addressed with just insecticidal soap or via predatory insects. You might be going for overkill with the Bonide product as well as destroying any beneficials. Thrips are also encouraged by both dry weather and heavy fertilization -- bumping up the watering during dry periods and backing off on the ferts might easily self-correct the problem. |
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| yes, they are thrips. The buds are bumpy and when the bloom opens it is deformed, not eaten. I do water well and I don't fertilize at all. I wrote a response here but it wasn't posted for some reason. I never had fungus before so I had no idea what to do or if I should do anything. I'll just cut off the affected leaves. I certainly do not like giving myself extra work (ie. going to the store to buy a product and then applying it) if I don't really need to. Thanks for all the responses. I can always count on the people on these forums to help me out. |
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