Ted Petit (now Greg Goff) is doing that type of line, resistant landscaping daylilies. He's had them out for awhile and you can find them in the AHS database (or here); they were actually out before they were registered. They are being sold in "big box" stores but not sure what areas and being marketed for landscaping. He wanted to come up with small, compact, landscaping daylilies that were resistant to rust.

Ted changed his name????

Hemlady said:Ted changed his name????

No Ted has basically retired and turned the business over to Greg Goff to run. Not sure the whole deal there but Ted and Susan want time to do other things. Ted is still hybridizing but every other aspect of the business is run by Greg Goff

Oh, gottcha ya. Thanks.

Pat, I'd be really cautious with wood ashes unless your soil is low pH because it also has a "liming" effect. A soil test for pH and nutrient levels would be the best bet first, then you'd know if you actually need more potassium (or anything else) and whether you can safely use wood ashes if adjustment is necessary. According to Marschner once your soil goes above the optimum amount of potassium for plant growth you aren't likely to see a further increase in disease resistance.

When my XYLOPHONE JAZZ got a terrible case of rust a couple of years ago and I couldn't get rid of it after several months, I remembered reading in one of the plant descriptions on the Floyd Cove website that Guy Pierce said anytime he sees rust on a plant he immediately cuts it to the ground, so that's what I did -- and it came back beautifully and I've never had rust on it since then, which I consider amazing!

I tossed all my rust susceptible daylilies and purchased the ones with good resistance and they all got rust anyway. If conditions are right I think they are just going to get it. Unless you spend a ton of money on chemicals. I am not in the 'Business', so I do not care what mine look like in October, I will just whack them off. I cut them down last year and they grew back with no rust.

I read an article from the The Lily Farm and Mark said he has great success with Dawn Dish Liquid as a contact spray even though it is not a fungicide.

http://www.lilyfarm.com/rust.h...

Susan, thanks for that link. Good.

Pat - I just found this thread! Glad you started it. I've started a few threads too about the appearance of daylilies and combating rust.

I thought I'd chime in on my personal attitude about daylily rust:
I am an organic gardener, so I try very hard to stay away from chemicals .... though I may try the Dawn Dish Soap idea. (As long as it is NOT anti-bacterial soap.) I have a number of what I call rust bucket daylilies in my yard. I like to have them around so I can use them to expose ALL my daylilies. I am trying to hybridize for rust resistant daylilies. I think if you live in the south and have humidity, the likelihood of developing rust on your daylilies (sooner or later) is very high unless you constantly spray for rust as most southern sellers do. And I understand their reason for doing so.

Let's face it ... if you live in the south, your plants are exposed to just about everything good .... and bad (unfortunately)! The rust has never appeared to affect any of my blooms. So what I do is just remove some of the worst rust infected leaves which are usually the oldest, outer leaves. (I bag them up and they go out for garbage pickup. Never compost them!) And I like to trim the leaf tips off the longer leaf blades so there is more air-flow around my plants. I do have them very close together in some of my garden beds. (Too close probably.) But I only do the pruning every other month when there is a lot of foliage growth. And it's not a hard prune, just a tidying up prune. The rust is still there, but the plants don't look as bad when the worst leaves are removed. Since I grow them more for me than for making my yard look picture perfect, I don't care as much about whether the foliage is pristine or not. All plants go through cycles of growth and leaf loss throughout a year, so I don't have one of those professionally landscaped and maintained yards where they get constant chemical spraying and a lawn crew to make it all look very perfect.

It's really a shame that rust was introduced to the USA and many other countries. I do remember a time when daylilies had no real diseases or serious fungus issues. All that has changed now. I am just glad that it doesn't usually kill the plants. They come back stronger and bigger for me every year.

Something else .... that I have noticed in my own garden..... Those daylilies that are now transplanted in partial shade garden beds have shown less stress and less fungus issues. Many of those very plants were in a full sun bed last year and had a lot of rust. This year, in the partial shade beds, they look a whole lot better! My guess is that a less-stressed plant will look much better and be a lot healthier. The only downfall (which I am still waiting to see if it is indeed an issue) is less blooms or re-blooms in the partial shade beds. So far, I haven't noticed less blooms. But I am waiting to see how many will re-bloom for me in partial shade.

And I have to give kuddos to Michelle for sharing her fertilizing method of using alfalfa. I have really noticed a difference in my daylilies this year which I do believe it has to do with the alfalfa. In fact, I am now using it on ALL my plants and boy! I can't believe the growth and vigor that my plants are showing! I am very, very happy with the results! I couldn't find the pellets, so I bought a large bag of the cubes (for horses - so that it doesn't have salt or any other additives in it). I stuff a bunch of the cubes into a footie stocking and tie off the end and drop it in a 5 gallon bucket of water and let it sit for 3 days. I use it at that point as a liquid fertilizer. I add more water after I've used up the liquid to reuse it several times more before I remove all the alfalfa from the footie and spread it in the soil around all my daylilies. I do add some MiracleGro and fish emulsion or pond water to the mix as well sometimes. And recently I dumped a bunch of used coffee grinds in a footie and also dropped it into the 5 gallon bucket with the alfalfa. I am experimenting to see how it affects the daylilies. Beside the MiracleGro (which I use at 1/2 the recommended dose), I am trying to go organic as much as possible. I just dosed my daylilies again today and squirted some super-thrive into the watering can with the alfalfa/coffee mix! The sandy soil here in FL lacks nutrients that all plants need. So using an organic fertilizer mix surely can't hurt them. And it really makes the foliage look great!

Just wondering ... where is it believed that rust fungus originated .... What country?

Being resistant does not mean a cultivar will not get rust. And, there are more known strains of rust now than was understood back when active testing was being done, so it is also possible that cultivars that did well in 2001 tests are encountering new strains of rust today. Those new strains may just as likely be "made in the USA" as rust of all kinds tends to evolve into new strains.

Being resistant by university test standards meant only that less than about 50% of the plant was showing active rust spores, which may still seem like a terrible case of it. But, those plants were observed to have more success at inhibiting or fighting back from the rust pathogen on their own (without treatments) than those that died or were more heavily covered with rust. So, even with up to 50% coverage of rust on a plant, it is still considered more resistant than susceptible.

The formally designed and AHS-supported university tests were a practical way to make observed measurements (based on whatever rust strain may have been present at each trial) so that consistent results could be shared and utilized for the greater good.

I've never seen anyone document in that same way that even a somewhat resistant-ranked cultivar like, for example, Siloam Double Classic, has been found to be a very bad performer against rust. It is complicated by the newer understanding that multiple rust strains do exist, and its not unlikely that those strains evolve, so of course it's entirely possible it could happen. But ... in all the years that the university test results have been available, I wonder at the lack of any specific, document challenges to the overall accuracy of the data at the time the studies were made available.

Perhaps this would be a good place to begin documenting the resistant daylilies that have been mentioned as an illustration. It should be easy to show if a cultivar now has much more susceptibility than the past results measured, and to see if we could sort out what training, reporting and documenting would be considered fair measure to their work. We all take so many photos of our daylilies - do you have any to share of the rust-infected plants that, though they would be found resistant on the list, fared much worse for you?

It is also very possible that, after cutting back daylilies either just in part or in full, they will return without going into another active round of rust, even in areas that get rust. Having it once does not mean that it will always re-occur each year. So, having it once and then not seeing a re-occurrance does not mean that cultivars are spontaneously developing immunity. Perhaps Sue will have some additional information on studies that may be trying to focus on that area of interest, and I think we all would be excited to hear that it is a reliable new development. But, so far, I'm not aware of any research to support it (please, anyone is welcome to post scientific reports if they have found something new to share).

Everyone is gladdened to hear that gardens bounce back and sometimes have avoided further rust episodes. And, as has been pointed out there is always the option to cut back in part or in whole - though I agree that full reduction back to the crown might sometimes be a bit more stressful than just a partial trimming. But it also might curtail the present round of rust from infecting additional daylilies that otherwise could get exposed by proximity or mechanical transfer, so I can understand why some will find it a better practice for their own gardens.

Glad I found this thread. Think I will try spraying with Dawn. How much for a 2 gallon pump sprayer?
I also have the worst case of rust this year. I usually have a flower yard sale at least twice a year. NOT this year, rust is so bad I wouldn't dare. So I shall just enjoy the pretty blooms.

A real testament to the beauty and love of daylilies. The university researchers found that a 1% solution of dishwashing liquid (they happened to use Ultra Dawn) dissolved in water and sprayed on daylilies "...worked to significantly suppress rust disease on daylily plants ... [and] Surprisingly, the dishwashing solution showed the fewest number of uredia [rust spores] per plant [after treatment, compared to other fugicide treatments]. They used 50mL of the dishwashing liquid/water solution on each plant.

So, if my converter information is correct, you would put 2.5 ounces of dishwashing liquid in two gallons of water.

Note to self: Must purchase a bottle of Ultra Dawn. Thanks, Tina! It's certainly worth trying. I wonder how much Dawn to add to one gallon of water?

My best understanding is that it would be 1.25 ounces, or 2-1/2 Tablespoons, of dishwashing liquid per gallon. A Tablespoon may be approximated to weigh about .5 ounce, so per Tbs/Gal would give just over 1%, I believe. But, I would love it if someone else wanted to clarify or correct based on their deeper understandings of percentages, weights, and measures!

1% of Ultra Dawn per gallon of water? 128 ounces in a gallon. 128 x .01 = 1.28 ounces. Is that correct?

Yup, that is my understanding of it Becky And, I believe that would equal about 2.5 Tablespoons of dishwashing liquid per gallon.

They also used about 3.5 tablespoons (close to 1/4 cup) of the resulting mix of dishwater soap-in-water to spray on each plant.

I shall definitely try that idea! I have plenty of rusty daylilies to see if it actually works! LOL!

Thank you chaylse
When I need to measure small amounts like ounces, I use one of those little glass measuring glasses (looks like a shot glass with numbers and lines. Found mine at Wally World by the measuring cups.
Whew, now that everybody knows I have rust , I will snap away and post.

By virtue of many daylilies having rust, many, many people have rust, too, Linda - you are in very good company.

I know I would be interested in seeing and reading any follow-up that people may do when the dishwashing mixture is used as a preventive treatment on daylilies that are likely to get rust later in the summer or fall.

Important Reminders: This was used as a suppressor before rust appeared (just like the fungicides were used), not as a cure or treatment after rust appeared. So, it was not an experiment to see if it would remove rust or even reduce it after it appeared. But, when used as a preventive spray before rust appeared, it did result in less spores than any of the fungisides they tested, and that may help to reduce the overall spread of rust that may occur at one time in a garden. But, again, it did not entirely stop rust from appearing - it just resulted in less spores appearing on the leaves than other types of treatments they used.

Also, they did the spraying twice, once before rust was expected to appear (just after they infected the plants) and again about two weeks later, when rust might be expected to begin showing up on the outside of the infected daylilies.

There may be more recent tests, done with additional fungicides, that produce better results than dishwashing liquid. And, I believe I have heard that alternating types of preventive treatments, at least for industrial fungicides, may be very effective, too.