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adam211_gw

Cercospora leaf spot on nursery order

adam211
9 years ago

I just order four small 4" pot Let's Dance Starlight hydrangeas from an online nursery. All all of them most of the leaves are filled with purple-ish spots and the occasional yellow leaf. A quick online search tells me it is Cercospora leaf spot--it looks exactly like the pictures I see online.

Is this a big enough deal to demand a refund, or should I plant? It looks like this isn't too uncommon with nursery grown hydrangeas, and I'm not too worried if they don't look spectacular this year.

I'm wondering if I can't expect it to clear up or--much worse--if it will spread to the rest of my garden.

Thanks!

Adam

Comments (5)

  • luis_pr
    9 years ago

    Hello, Adam. I suppose cercospora could spread to other cercospora sensitive plants but it does not kill the plants. At worst, it looks ugly. Clean cultural practices may help.

    But you paid for healthy plants so I would send them pictures and ask for replacements. A phone call should be done asap. Read the companies rules regarding replacements, especially in case they are out of stock of the one that you originally ordered.

  • October_Gardens
    9 years ago

    Also look up companies using Garden Watchdog first. I can't link or mention the site here so you'll have to Google it.

  • adam211
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Never saw Garden Watchdog. They had about half and half there. Just got a full refund after sending in pictures. Now I just need to figure out what to do with diseased plants. Throw them in the compost? Cut off all the leaves and put them in the window and see if it returns next year?

  • luis_pr
    9 years ago

    Wait, throw diseased material in the trash instead of the compost pile so the spores do not spread elsewhere from the compost pile.

    You can treat them like a healthy hydrangea but keep the area under/around clean and dispose of the leaves in the Fall by throwing them & the blooms in the trash. Water the soil and not the leaves; always do the waterings eaarly in the mornings. Replace the mulch if it looks like a big infestation.

    You can cut off the worst leaves or all. There is no telling if the shrubs will quickly/easily recover since they were not established in the garden. Since you got your money back, you could try and not loose anything.

    The infestation normally develops in late summer and not around this time so most people do not bother to apply fungicides since, by late summer, the leaves are weeks or a few months from drying and falling anyway. But in heavy infestations, fungicides can be applied to treat the condition (but not cure it so it will come back next year) as soon as the spots appear; continue applying until the plant goes dormant.

    Some fungicides suggested for cercospora (active ingredient name first; commercial name in parenthesis): azoxystrobin (Heritage; smallest application rate and largest repeat interval); chlorothalonil (Daconil); mancozeb (Dithane; Protect; others); myclobutanil (Immunox); thiophanate-methyl (Cleary's 3336).

  • gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
    9 years ago

    Don't throw them away!! Grow the dang things!! Cercospora is not that big a deal - primarily cosmetic - and young plants easily outgrow it. And seldom what anyone would call contagious. It is almost always only an issue with nursery stock. It is highly unusual to find plants in the landscape in the PNW afflicted with it......in more than 20 years of professional gardening I've only seen it once or twice.