Xenacrockett said:
What do daylily sellers do when they get rust? Do they soak plants prior to shipping?
Would a 10% bleach solution be adequate to help prevent rust from being shipped (after plants had been treated with a systemic and looked clear of rust)
I can only speak for myself but what we do normally here is after they are washed then they go into a bleach solution to soak while I wash the next plants. We don't do this for rust because I don't know that bleach will kill rust spores, we do it to kill anything else that may want to start lurking in a dark, damp (if plants weren't completely dry), hot box like mold. I have gotten boxes in and the roots had started growing hair (mold) but then I just soak them in bleach solution before planting.
What we did last year was we would dip the plants in rust fungicides after the bleach bath if AND ONLY if it was getting close to spray time but if I had just recently sprayed then we wouldn't. This was in the fall when it was getting close to the rust's normal time to breakout. One reason I stopped doing it was because I have to bring my plants home to box up and ship since I do not live at the garden and I have no place outside to do it so I bring them inside the house and the house would spell like chemicals forever and that wasn't good. Plus it was very difficult trying to box daylilies with chemical gloves on
I don't think most sellers soak there plants before shipping because if they spray regularly then there really is no point in soaking them and with bleach not being a known spore killer then why do it. If a daylily has no visible rust but is infected with rust (remember it is on the inside of the plant if it is) then the bleach really would do nothing for it since it cannot get inside the plant.
