A couple of days ago I was absolutely horrified to discover patches of rust on my climbing roses. Although I immediately cut off the visibly affected branches, I fear for the rest. (I have 3 growing up a pergola) Is there a non-chemical way to stop it? (And just when the roses were beginning to get established...... :'( )
I'm sorry you are having this issue, I didn't have much luck honestly treating mine organically. But I'm not sure of your weather conditions where you are, here in florida its very hot and very high humidity. I used Ortho Rose pride and it worked. Sorry my advice isn't organic. But that's what worked for me. But I have been doing a neem oil treatment and haven't had a reoutbreak, not sure if the oil is now keeping it at bay or luck but I haven't needed to use the ortho in awhile.
Thank you, Mrs Galeassi! Deep down I knew there wasn't anything organic that would cure rust, since it is a rather nasty & destructive fungus Tomorrow I'm off to the shops to buy the Dutch equivalent of Ortho Rose. That will hopefully do the trick. Not looking forward to spraying, though, because it involves me balancing on a ladder in order to reach over my pergola. Heights are not my strong point..... Oh yes, you asked about our weather: usually our summers are cool compared to Florida, with temps on average 22C. (This week is an exception, forecast is 2 days of 30C+ ) I think there is a lot of fungus around this year because we had an extremely long & cold winter/spring period.
Yeah fungus is a daily problem with our 100% humidity. Sorry I didn't mean to detour you from organic methods. Id much rather use organic products. Its painful to use but I want my plants. Now I can handle heights when I'm relaxed, I can't when I'm under pressure and if someone was watching me. I'm odd...hahaha. Good luck with your roses. And be careful
Oh, but you're not odd at all! I, too, hate it when people watch me do stuff, makes me clumsy! (I remember being terrified of one particular teacher at school. When working on our sums in silence, he used to walk about & randomly stop at a desk to see what we were writing. I was so scared I couldn't even breathe, leave alone write anything. Hated maths ever since )
