Friday, August 10, 2012

Help with Dahlia Disease

For some reason my three containers in the front of the house all have diseased dahlias.  Here is one of them:
 It doesn't look too horrible until you get a tad closer.  And then............Whoa, it looks bad.

Do any of you know what this disease is?  Will I need to toss out the dahlia tubers?   I am planning to cut this one all the way down tomorrow.  At the moment I have no idea what I will do to make it look decent until October.  I guess that's my challenge for the weekend. :)

11 comments:

  1. I don't grow them Zoey so I don't know what it could be. Are you sure you shouldn't wait to cut them down though? I mention that because everything indicates to keep leaves on things as long as possible to continue feeding the roots or tubers. Maybe just cut off the worst leaves? Not sure either, just a thought since that's what I've always heard and applied here.
    Cher Sunray Gardens

    ReplyDelete
  2. I just thought mine were sunburned when they did that. I cut the ugly leaves off and keep going.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks for the input Cher and Darla. I have been cutting off the bad leaves, but now almost all of them are bad! So frustrating!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Oh- I have no idea...and you work so hard at keeping all your plants beautiful -so it is especially frustrating. xo Diana

    ReplyDelete
  5. I don't like it when that happens and you can't figure out what caused it...

    ReplyDelete
  6. I've never grown Dahlias so I have no idea. I would call the nursery.

    ReplyDelete
  7. It almost looks like mildew. Has it been really humid where you live? You might try a fungal spray.

    It might be a sunburn too.

    I am sure you can keep your tubers for next year. This isn't anything that is harming them.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Hi Zoey,

    I have a viburnum bush that looks like this and from what I read on the internet it may be nemetodes sucking on the roots. I fed it diluted fish emulsion, figured it couldn't hurt it.

    They said the nemetodes do not like the fish emulsion. It is getting some normal looking leaves now.

    Eileen

    ReplyDelete
  9. Oh Zoey, you work hard to have a beautiful garden and then this happens. I don't grow Dahlias so I'm no help. Hope someone can help you.

    ReplyDelete
  10. I looked it up...may be helpful:
    http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/dahlia/msg0701054215694.html?5

    ReplyDelete
  11. I can't help ya, sister, I don't have a green thumb. (And when I get my blog posted you will see more of the story)

    ReplyDelete

I appreciate you taking the time and effort to leave a comment. I will try to answer any questions you have. Please note due to Blogger changing word verification so almost nobody can read it, I have had to change to no word verification and only allow registered users to comment.

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...