Hi all,
It's been a LONG time since I've had a chance to visit here on DG. But in the hustle and bustle of running through the garden at breakneck speed several times a day to and from the kids' school and preschool....well, I noticed that several of my dragon fruit plants and now even my Epiphyllum have lots and lots of little rust colored spots on them. It's been raining and raining and raining so not so easy to get outside with the digital camera to get a photo of the spots....sorry. Have any of you heard of this? What can I do to get rid of the spots (if they're something to worry about, that is)?
Thanks in advance for any suggestions.
-Julie
Rust on Epis?
Look for photos and descriptions of orange rust. It makes small depressions on Epiphyllums and the hybrids, but it can really destroy a Selenicereus. They seem to be more succeptible. Fungicide can help if caught early, the best remedy is dry weather and temps above 60F/16C.
Pete, thanks for the feedback. I had to laugh at the "best remedy" though. No hope of any dry weather here until the end of spring. I'll see if I can find a good fungicide at the garden center this weekend. Looks like I may be in trouble though as you said "if caught early". The amount of spots makes me believe that this isn't exactly in it's early stages. LOL. Oh well.....back to the old drawing board with new baby plants in the spring probably (no use crying over rust spotted epis LOL).
-Julie
For most epis, the spots are unsightly but not fatal. Under my conditions, I get rust almost every late winter. Many of the E. oxypetallum leaves have holes all the way through. For succeptible plants, I bring them into the house because the greenhouse is quite cool (which doesn't help the plant either). Good air circulation also cuts down on the incidence of rust. I have learned to run the fans longer.
If you have the outdoors room and enjoy cactus fruits, many species of Stenocereus are cultivated for fruits, and some plants like Pachycereus are well adapted to a Mediterranean climate and produce desireable fruit. Carnegia gigantea (Saguaro) can take frosts and it also has fleshy fruits.