Ok so I got three plants, all from the same place. They looked very nice. I planted them and nothing happened. After about three days, I always get a new little green tip showing, anyway, there was pretty much green, so I cut the leaves down farther. WOW, inside, the core of the fans were rotten. I just left them, thinking that maybe they got nipped by the cold and that that tissue was rotting. The leaven kinda started growing, but they are all coming out stuck together. When I pull the leaves apart, there are these small brown tick like things with little black heads. This was a good chunk of money and if I can save them, I really would like to.
I know a picture would help, I cant seem to get it from the phone to the computer. Still trying tho.

I should have said it looks like a tick without legs, I think its a casing of some kind, not the insect.

A picture would definitely help, hope you can upload it. If you can email it to your computer that's one way if you can't do it direct. There's always the danger that critters in rotting tissue are secondary, attracted by the rot, rather than the cause. Getting a look at them should help, they don't ring a bell as a typical daylily pest from the description. It would also help to know the state the plants came from if not local.

That doesn't ring a bell for me but I wouldn't hesitate to get in touch with the seller and find out what he or she has to say about it. I know when I have sprayed if there is too much surfactant/detergent/sticker in the mix you can get the type of growth you are describing.

JWWC said:I know when I have sprayed if there is too much surfactant/detergent/sticker in the mix you can get the type of growth you are describing.

I just managed to do this! They will recover, won't they?

They better recover, they were my most expensive daylilies ever...bar one.

We're you able to contact the seller and ask about it?
Hope they make it for you ( fingers crossed).

Lisa

There are lots of things that can fall in the center foliage and become logged, did you try removing it, may be bird poop or something else harmless.

needrain said:

I just managed to do this! They will recover, won't they?

Yes they will. I'd keep an eye on it so that if you need to you can snip the top of the new growth and open it up.

I think I won't be using any spray containing any surfactant on daylily foliage again. The result has clearly been detrimental to the central growth of fans. Anything that causes slimy, rotted tissue deep in the fan makes me nervous. It's been very warm and very dry since it was done and I've been careful to keep any water off the fans, but I keep finding some. The sticker seems to have stuck the growth point together in a glob. I broke one fan off near the soil line and it's doing better. On others the outer leaves still show healthy growth and camouflage the center and I just keep finding goo in them.

I would definitely contact the seller and send them photos. I don't think it would hurt to sprinkle a little sevin powder on them, most critters are killed or at least deterred by it.
If you don't have a critter still yet, it won't harm the dl either way. I would pot these so you can keep a closer eye on them and if it were me, I'd keep them away from my other dl until you can figure out what is wrong, just in case.

Donald...that sounds just like it

needrain said:I think I won't be using any spray containing any surfactant on daylily foliage again. The result has clearly been detrimental to the central growth of fans. Anything that causes slimy, rotted tissue deep in the fan makes me nervous. It's been very warm and very dry since it was done and I've been careful to keep any water off the fans, but I keep finding some. The sticker seems to have stuck the growth point together in a glob. I broke one fan off near the soil line and it's doing better. On others the outer leaves still show healthy growth and camouflage the center and I just keep finding goo in them.

I wouldn't be hugely worried about it - in my experience you really need very very little surfactant. Most people talk about just adding a 'squirt of dawn dish soap' to their sprayer when in reality you need very little of it especially if people are using the super uber mega dish soap concentrates. I can't find the percentage of surfactants in it but I will check the bottle I have when I get home.

Because of my interest in spring sickness, a few years back a couple of people separately sent me some pictures of damage they thought might be spring sickness. It can happen with spring sickness that the interior of some fans rots but it didn't quite look like ss to me, it looked more like what is being described above. Turned out both had used the same specific brand of surfactant. If you decided you did want, or need, to continue using one, you might test a different brand on a few plants first without the pesticide in it. It's always a good idea to test products you haven't used before on a few plants first before treating the whole lot just to be safe.

I was also sent some other pictures to determine if they were spring sickness, but in that case the damage was from an over-the-top herbicide. The product name was the same as had been used before and was "safe" for daylilies, but the manufacturer had changed the active ingredients in the product and the "new improved" version damaged the daylilies.

BTW I wouldn't use Sevin unless you're sure that the problem is an insect that is susceptible to it because it is one of the insecticides that can increase spider mites.

Im not exactly worried, a little sad that I spent so much money and I sure wont get a bloom from that little stump Ive had to make. I hope it live for next year tho.

Well I looked at some pictures of 'spring sickness' . That is exactlly what mine look like. There is some kind of mite in them as well...or there was.

Yes, although the bulb mite, which is suspected in spring sickness, doesn't match your description (they aren't brown with black heads). I've found various other insects/mites in spring sickness but generally they can be considered secondary to the damage and are not consistent findings.

The mites were white, Im not sure they had anything to do with those other things. Now that I have seen pictures, at least I know what it was/is

White mites that you see fairly easily would most likely be bulb mites. The do have a brown life stage also but it's not as commonly seen and is also very small, the majority of the mites you see would still be whitish. Some predatory mites, "good guys", that attack bulb mites are brown, though, and faster moving.