Okay, please forgive my massive freakout. I'm laughing at myself now for being a complete dork and chopping everything. ARGH!!!! I just thought "OMGOSH! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! So EARLY??" But a neat daylily guy gave me this link
http://web.ncf.ca/ah48/rust.html#intro which calmed my fears.. I must just have leaf streak of some sort that is less streaky and more spotty. HOWEVER. anyone who HAS had daylily rust in thier garden..does "Serenade" work on it?

I read you original post before the add on and I was thinking that it was way too early for rust. Of course, I am not sure were you are and 7A can cover a lot of territory. And I don't know anything about rust except what I read on the forum here and there.

Daylilies do get something I very unscientificly call the "cruds" it makes some unslighly brown streaks or spots in the daylily leaves but is generally harmless. I mostly get that in late summer after flowering when the daylilies seem most stressed. I bet that is what you have. Maybe someone here knows a better name for it.

If it truely was rust then selling rusty plants is not ethical, bleach bath or not.

I have not had rust so don't know what to spray for it BUT I do have roses. The daylilies that I spray whenever I do the roses each two weeks are always nice and clean, never get any of those "cruds" I was referring to. I don't spray the daylilies on purpose, just some are near my rose beds and get overspay as I use a hose end sprayer with a fairly wide angle.

Also, even though she didn't mention it here, Rita taught me to spray the day lily folaige with fish emulsion. It has had an amazing effect on the leaf streak or whatever it is! I also spray my day lilys every two weeks with a fungicide (alternate products used) when I spray my iris and the roses. My foilage is now green, blue-green, and lush. It is far better than it has ever been. Thanks Rita! Hope this helps too.

kay

The liquid seaweed or fish emulsion fertilizer is great stuff. I always use it after the daylilies finish blooming and the folliage starts to look ratty. One year we had a hail storm and it shredded up the leaves good. I used the liquid seaweed fertilzer and they grew back really fast all lush and green. It does wonders to get rid of all sorts of daylily "cruds". Not that it would cure rust but it does tend to make the daylilies healthier and that always helps.

Thanks so much..

Rita.. I'm in Queens, so maybe not super far off from you, and after looking at this link, I"m sure it's just "cruddy" .. I wiped with a kleenex and no yellow powder coming off.
ANd I agree with you.. I would not in good conscience sell something that I thought might be rust-carrying (I did not think anything overwintered, and had seen no signs of anything this year until today) - I had asked because I had been advised to soak new daylilies in a 25 percent bleach solution for 20 minutes before planting to avoid rust from southern sellers, and had assumed this would automatically knock out any possible rustiness.. but if a bleach soak is not the answer then I won't attempt and frustrate another daylily lover's garden. I will just go with the ones that are looking excellent and not in that area.

Kay..(and Rita) thanks for the fish emulsion trick. I have lots of it sitting around (my son is always asking.. does this involve fish parts? "when he sees me carying buckets of water to fill the cans. I'll try it out.

5% bleach solution is considered germicidal. When daylily rust spread, people started using a 10% bleach solution, just to be sure to kill everything! Now 25%! That strong a solution probably takes several layers of tissue off your daylilies! Don't get it on you either, or you'll lose some skin.
Soaking in bleach was used to prevent pathogens from getting from one garden to the next. It's very ineffective against rust and I think these high concentrations cause much more harm to the plant than they do good.
Ed

OMG, ED!!! GAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I used the 25% bleach solution on my first order of daylilies. (I actually showed my husband the article and bleach solution to make sure my eyes weren't wrong b/c I THOUGHT "wow.. that's a LOT of bleach in one bucket)GRRRRRRRRRRR

And this is where I feel like the officially daylily forum idiot.. *sigh* LOL *goes out to check and see if daylilies are still alive or just pretending after bleach bath*

We had a horrible winter here on Long Island, all that snow in February. Honestly, rust could not have survived. Not to say you could not get it again by ordering from the south. At least I figgure that is how you got it in the first place. If I were you and these cruddies were bothering you, I would spray with Bonide Infuse if you want to use a systemic. It clears up all kinds of things. Probably would even stop rust from breaking out but thats just a thought of mine and not a scientific statement.

I am in Nassau, on the north shore. In fact I can look out the picture window in my livingroom and see the water.

OOH!! That's awesome, Rita..*momentarily goes green with jealousy!* it sounds really pretty.. (I've seen your yard projects in other posts-it must be awesome to be surrounded by so much visual prettiness!) .. I"m only 10 mins away from the Whitestone Bridge, basically and yes. I didn't figure anything overwintered b/c we have had a LOT of snow and almost all my daylilies are above ground, so when it's cold.. they're COLD!.. that's why I kind of freaked at the leaf streak.

I'm pretty sure I know which place I got it from, because I was clueless about rust last year and had no idea what it was, but in retrospect, I remember seeing it on just one of about 30 plants to start with and just figured it was okay, so at least in that case, I can sort of isolate where to not buy from.

Cruddies dont' even bother me so much.. I'm usually pretty easygoing. I guess I was just afraid of having to throw things away and spend all this extra time/money on maintenance after convincing my husband so much that it made sense to spend all my hard earned income on lots of daylilies and the containers to hold them.LOL

I get that leaf streaking, usually after they
bloom. But I understand Rust will rub off on a glove and I've not experienced that. The fish emulsion you speak of, is it a powder or liquid form? I usually have to buy everything at Lowe's or Home Depot - do you have a different name for it? Thanks for any help....

Whew, if you have skunks anywhere around, you might want to avoid using fish emulsion. ( not only that , it is about the nastiest smelling stuff I've ever used in the garden) But skunks will dig if they smell fish emulsion on plants. Had to learn this the hard way. Fish emulsion is one of the ingredients of the Hooker solution. Several fungicides work well on leaf streak. The Cleary ( I forgot the number) formula is one of the best for leaf streak.

But the effect is so wonderful! I have never had such lush beautiful greenery before. The cats came around, but they didn't cause any more trouble than usual.

kay

I used fish emulsion in the Hooker's formula and skunks dug around quite a few of my plants looking for the dead fish. Deep holes! I quit using it that way because of the danger to my plants. I now use it in a hose end sprayer instead of pouring it around the base of the plant. The skunks don't dig as bad, at least not in the root zones.

I have a cotton tail rabbit that lives in my daylilies. She found a good home when I broadcast alfalfa pellets. She leaves indentations in the soil under the larger clumps and will scare the crap out of me when she bolts. Usually when I'm right on top of her. I only till alfalfa pellets into the soil now. If you have any lose dogs in the neighborhood, they can tear a seedling bed up chasing the rabbits in them.

Have fun!
Ed