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jumbojimmy

Does lime sulfur works?

jumbojimmy
9 years ago

It's winter in oz. the past four weeks i used lime sulfur on my dormant roses... but some of the leaves still get black spot.

How many times do i need to spray using lime sulfur? If i use lime sulfur, will i need to use other fungucide in later spring/summer?

Comments (9)

  • michaelg
    9 years ago

    I don't recommend using lime sulfur on roses. It is smelly, toxic, and corrosive and offers limited benefit if any. I doubt that dormant spray helps with blackspot. Repeated sprays through the dormant period might reduce canker, if that is a big problem for you.

    Harmless plain sulfur is about as effective as a fungicide, except it washes off quicker. If you spray wettable or micronized sulfur weekly through the growing season, it is a fairly effective blackspot control.

  • mike_rivers
    9 years ago

    I haven't tried it, but Jeff Gillman reports that a simple milk spray gives the best control of all home remedies for blackspot.

    Here is a link that might be useful: Jeff Gillman

  • seil zone 6b MI
    9 years ago

    I agreee with Michael. Lime sulfur is nasty stuff and it's benefits are iffy at best. I wouldn't bother.

    Mike, I have used a milk type spray before. I can't say with any certainty that it helped but I can say it left a messy gray residue that looked terrible! Almost worse than the disease, lol.

  • jim1961 / Central Pennsylvania / Zone 6
    9 years ago

    mike_rivers, I tried the milk type spray here with no luck.
    Like Seil said it left a ugly residue AND
    all the leaves fell off the rose bush so I'm sure it didn't work...

    I've also tried the baking soda recipe with no luck.

    Tried fish sprays etc. No dice...

    Tried Neem oil which did not work here either...

    Tried WILT-PRUF with no luck...

    Greencure was a no go...

    I never tried any type of sulfer sprays so can't comment on those...

    But don't let me discourage anyone from experimenting.... These are just my experiences...

  • meredith_e Z7b, Piedmont of NC, 1000' elevation
    9 years ago

    I use copper and lime (once) while dormant, mainly because of the awful canker we get showing up in the spring, and I get anthracnose on other things in the garden/orchard. I still use Bordeaux (thus the lime), because my local Feed N Seed has the premix powdered and quite convenient.

    I think that helps for canker. Probably. I've done it so long, it's hard to say. I still get some canker, so it's not foolproof. Maybe I need to do more than one round, like for orchards. Hmmm :)

    Blackspot is still a definite problem in the spring, later, in my yard, yeah. I switch to Bayer once it gets bad enough, even though it's usually still cool enough for the heavy-hitting organic chemicals at that point. The Bayer takes the fewest sprays of anything I've tried (here), so I like that all around.

  • tigerloveroses
    9 years ago

    Copper sulfate seemed to work.the diseased leaves had to be trimmed

  • jim1961 / Central Pennsylvania / Zone 6
    9 years ago

    Problem here is we get a lot of rain and we get dew on the rose leaves almost every night so the rose leaves are wet until mid to late morning. I have noticed rose leaves being wet at 10pm-11pm some nights from dew.

    So organic products just wash off and have to be reapplied so often that it seems like it causes more BS problems. Plus its a pain in the a**! lol

  • meredith_e Z7b, Piedmont of NC, 1000' elevation
    9 years ago

    It must be our dew here, too, Jim. I have some really dry spots in my yard that also get a whole lot of wind, yet I still get fungal problems that require dampness. I mean these plants really bake, and the grass won't grow due to the sun, heat, and water stress. I do get a lot of dew, though, every morning and thunderstorms aren't rare here at night... bummer. It doesn't take many hours of dampness for some mean fungi.

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