Hi everyone, I am back from a 2 week long hiatus due to a broken computer. :( Lots of catching up to do on DG! Anyway, I took these pictures a couple of weeks ago before the computer breakdown. Any ideas about what these brown spots on my peonies are? Photo of sedum to follow below . . .
This is my autumn sedum. I have two plants, both transplants from MIL. One is doing gorgeously, but this one looks a little sickly. Any ideas?
BUMP . . . any new thoughts on these?
Some of my sedum has the same problem. Just two of them - the others are doing great.
The Peony has the same stuff mine has too, and I was told that there was nothing much to be done about it except to keep it well watered and fertilized through the summer. I have done that for two years now and it blooms more beautifuly every spring and them by July gets those same rust or virus spots. There aren't so many of them yet this year, but I am fertilizing enough to keep the leaves a nice dark green. oh and keep the leaves dry.
You know, I am very faithful with the watering, but I'm not the best when it comes to remembering to fertilize. Thanks for the tip! I will go out and feed everything tonight. :)
I'm not sure what's going on with the sedum, but with the peony, it could be fungal spots from water splashing on the leaves--if you use overhead watering and water in the evening those can both contribute to leaf spots like that.
I always water in the evening (b/c I was taught it was better to do it out of direct sunlight) and I always use either the spray nozzle or the sprinkler. So there you have it. So I should go out in the early morning and turn the hose on at the base of the plant in a trickle, right?
Early morning would be better--if you live in a climate like mine where there's not much humidity then you can get away with evening watering and not have any ill effects, but in a more humid part of the country it can encourage fungal growth because the leaves stay wet. If you're going to switch to just watering at the base of the plant then you may be able to continue watering in the evening, the most important thing is not to splash the leaves when you're watering. Or on the other hand, in the morning you may be able to get away with overhead watering since the leaves will be able to dry out more quickly. So ideally you fix both of the potential problems, but if a particular watering method or a particular time of the day really works better for you then you may be able to get away with things as long as you're not combining evening watering and overhead spray.
We are 20+ inches ahead on rain this year, so yeah, we have that problem. The master gardener that told me this stuff said that it was ?blank? in the plants system and would never actually go away, it might not SHOW itself if I keep the plants healthy, but they would always have the disease.
