Nancy,

So sorry :(
How terribly sad that you have to spend all your time battling RUST!!!
I didn't know that rust would harbor in seeds and carry into the seedling - how awful!! I have seen on some seed auctions where some say they've dipped the seeds, but thought maybe it was to prevent mold.

I sure hope you get the nasty stuff taken care of.

Tammy

Thanks Tammy! WHAT A CHORE! This is why I posted, because wasn't sure if anyone knew about seeds and rust! I wished I could remember where I read about it....DARN IT. I decided to read more about rust once I had the new arrivals all trimmed back to nothing and sprayed relentlessly. Since that bout seems to be under control and I'm not seeing any rust I spent all my time outside today SPRAYING with Daconil, pulling out dead foilage and trimming back to about 2 inches since it is SO HOT....was afraid I would lose some if I trimmed more than that! Will finish the trimming tomorrow and then tomorrow evening will spray with Cabrio...SHEESH and I thought I was done! I am hoping for an early winter now...and a NICE COLD ONE to boot!
Nancy

Nancy,

This is all I could find about rust & seeds (taken from this page http://www.theworld.com/~mhuben/rust.html):
"Alternatively, seed produced from rusty plants can be surface sterilized with dilute bleach or hydrogen peroxide, and germinated free from rust. Then the seedlings can be grown in a garden free of rust. Pollen from rusty plants should also be safe, especially if cut buds are surface sterilized before they open."

And this was included in a post by Gerard in this thread http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/daylily/msg0513081330409.html?37:
".........I use fungisides too. Nothing fancy or expensive. FOR ME. And i always tell people i have rust and hate it!! Even when i send seed, i'm sure to let them know i have it here and the seeds have been treated with daconil........."

If G were around maybe he could give you some pointers.
I wouldn't know whether to treat the seeds immediately after harvesting before drying or what.

Wish I could help more :(

Tammy

Where's Royce when you need him! Sure hope he hasn't had another piece of stupid equipment revolt on him. He always loses those battles.

Nancy, rust will not be inside the seed. Rust might survive ON a seed, particularly if the seed is refrigerated within a couple of days of harvesting. Since rust spores can be killed with soapy water, I'm sure a quick soak in suds would eliminate any viable spores.

When rust appeared in your holding areas, a stray spore or two migrated to your established garden and has now infected everything else. It's been there for a while, it just takes time to explode.

If my memory cell is working, rust spores only survive about 3 days unless it is on a green, growing, live material. I know you are preparing for the greenhouse so make sure everything you take into it are rust free or you will have a monumental problem not only in the gh, but also infecting your garden early next year. You should be able to start seeds in the gh and be safe.

Rust is ugly but in my zone, it is easier to fight than the Southern Blight I have on some hosta and in my grass. This has been a horrible summer for fungus to bloom.

Brooke

Oh Nancy, I'm so sorry that rust has infected your garden. The one tip I learned from you was to start a holding garden. So far that has worked well. Every time I see something a little suspicious on my DL's I start wiping with tissues to see if rust is present. This summer has been very unusual...other than a quick and sporadic rain we haven't had any significant soaks in quite a while. The temps have dropped down to the low 60's overnight and are in the 70-80's daytime.
Good luck, I hope you get a nice deep cold winter this year to kill all the rust.
Marilyn

Brooke, no revolt of the stupid equipment. We are having a couple of days of nice weather, including a little rain. It is in high 70s today. Probably the first time I have seen 70s at mid day in several months. Love it.

I have rust again and thought I might get a little sympathy, but Brooke and Nancy have bigger problems, so forget the sympathy. I found some rust in one raised bed. Sprayed it with soapy water (to keep it from spreading - hopefully) and Roundup - to really keep it from spreading. At first, I started cutting back the daylilies, but it took too long (while it was still hot), so just sprayed with Roundup. Sprayed nearby daylilies and those going into the gh, with Cabrio. Areas farther away were not sprayed. They likely have it, but I will treat them when it shows, or after weather cools.

It really surprised me that rust would come from a seed. I have bought seeds only once, so have never done any research on that. Nancy, if you find the source of that information, I would like to read it. If it came from seeds, I would suspect, as Brooke, that the rust was on the seed and not inside and that a soapy water bath would eliminate it.

The Spring 2004 Daylily Journal (pg 56+) provides information on spore survival experiments. If I interpret the information correctly, over half the spores were still viable after 34 days of storage at 20C (68F). I am not certain I am reading this correctly, but think I am.

Good luck to all.

The things I have been missing! You know I feel your pain, Nancy. Fighting it here and I am not happy, either! So far, (too much time left before frost) it is confined to one area.

I have, for me, lots of seedlings and I sure hope they don't get it. I didn't know that about seeds. I will have to look at them more carefully as I bought seeds from lots of folks.

It is a bummer. Makes you want to be even more careful about buying...although, having said that, I don't really know how to be more careful! I didn't buy from anyone with an acknowledged rust problem.

I had someone tell me recently that the plant that was felt to bring rust into her garden was a new intro...and it didn't exhibit rust...but everything around it got it (which had not had it before).

Bring on winter. Sigh. Never thought I'd say that.

Well Hello Everyone....I am feeling much better now! EVERYTHING is sprayed and cut back with a regular spray routine ongoing until winter gets closer. Regrowth look good on everything including the seedlings that were transplanted into 3 gal. pots.
Brooke and Royce, from what I read was right along the lines of what you spoke of. The spores being present on seed, I never read where it was inside the seed. I will just dump them into a dish of soapy water before planting.
My biggest worry about the rust treatment was the drastic cutback in this heat, but they seem to have done just fine. I was worried about the stresses leading to crown rot or other problems, but the regrowth is nice and green, the plants even seem healthier looking. I haven't had to water in over a week due to regular rain showers here and there, but the past two days have been DOWNPOURS....close to seven inches in the past two days!
Katie....I don't think you could see rust on the seeds. I would just dip them into the soapy water like I will.
Royce....Does the ROUNDUP hurt daylilies?
Nancy

Nancy, I was being facetious. Roundup kills daylilies. If the daylilies are dead, they will not have rust. I really did spray the rusty bed with Roundup. It contained seedlings that have already bloomed two years and there was nothing in it I wanted to use in hybridizing. I had hoped to let them bloom another year, since I don't need the space. Was also thinking if rust had not appeared this year, it might be safe to give them to someone without spreading rust.

Glad yours are now better. I have noticed that when I do the severe cut back on daylilies, they often multiply more. More fans, but smaller. It will be interesting to see if you get the same results.

Boy am I behind or what? So much going on here at least I've not seen anymore rust! I do believe I caught it early enough to not spread around!
My first cutback has grown back beautifully! The foilage came back alot thinner, smaller, sparser looking, if that makes any sense. But they look plenty healthy and GREEN. I have to sell off some of my DLs to pay for a proliferation collection I purchased on LA a couple days ago! I was looking to see how many fans of this and that and deciding what I could sell and HAVE NOTICED xtra fans growing back! Maybe I should cut them back every mid-summer just for fan increase!? LOL!
Nancy

Nancy, I now have a small bit of rust on plants bought this year that are potted up and quite a distance from the other plants that had rust. I now don't know if the dipping thing on new plants works.

I haven't treated the latest outbreak. Perhaps I will do it tomorrow. I was hoping the rust was cured and I could give daylilies to my neighbors instead of composting them. Guess it will be the compost pile after all. Since that didn't work, I am seriously considering just letting the rust go untreated and keeping the most resistant ones for hybridizing.

BTW, we both noticed the increased, although smaller, fans after cutting them back drastically. One other thing is that all the fans are growing from one large piece. My experience has been that they can only be divided by cutting them.

Royce