Why My Roses Never Get Sick With Fungal Diseases. Prevention Secrets. Photo

2023 Author: Ava Durham | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-11-27 07:13

I fell in love with roses fifteen years ago. My first roses often upset me: either with multi-colored spots on the leaves, or with a white powdery coating of powdery mildew, or with some other nuisance. What I didn’t do to heal the rose bushes and prevent diseases … The last five years, fungal diseases on my site happened only twice and did not have time to cause any harm to the rose garden. I will share the secrets of preventing fungal infection in the rose garden.

1. Landing site matters

Most often, roses planted in inappropriate places are sick. List of the most inappropriate places:

• deep shadow,
• north side of the building,
• the most sunshine,
• very close to the wall (less than a meter),
• in the lowlands,
• in a dense environment of other bushes.

Before buying a rose, walk around the site and think - where will you plant it? Choosing a place, replanting a bush every year is a thankless task, you get tired of waiting for flowers.

2. The bush must be formed without sparing

I remember at the very beginning it was a pity to cut the roses. I carefully, reluctantly, cut off only the branches that had suffered after wintering. As a result, after a couple of years, not bushes, but brooms were obtained! Dense thickets are a great place for fungal infections, and no matter how much you spray them with vitriol, the fungus will not recede.

The formation of a bush is not only correct pruning, thinning, but also help in the arrangement of branches. After wintering, you need to help the bush to straighten out, and when new shoots are actively growing, give them the correct position. So, if the branches are too inclined to the ground, tie it to the center of the bush, and if, on the contrary, are directed to the center, pull it to the side.

Some varieties with brittle shoots need support, because it is so offensive when a new strong shoot breaks off from a strong wind.

To fix the shoots, use a hard wire with a soft winding. Roses do not like rag garters, and plastic clips can damage the stems of young shoots.

3. No manure and overdose

Roses love dung. Both cow and horse. Plants respond very well to it, they increase their green mass remarkably. There is only one "but": fungi also love manure and remain there for a long time.

Somehow I didn't like to constantly vitriol the bushes. Flowers suffer from this. I had to give up manure.

Chicken droppings are no worse for roses. Just don't repeat my mistake! I took chicken droppings from a year ago, and, as it was, dry and undiluted, fell asleep under the bushes. The leaves begin to turn brown - the roots of the roses are burning. They can only be saved by immediate removal of droppings and constant abundant watering.

Attention! Even old chicken droppings cannot be put under pure roses! It must be soaked and mixed with humus or peat in the proportion: 3 parts of chicken manure to 7 parts of humus.

Mineral fertilizers for roses are also very necessary. Here are just an overdose of dressings - a direct path to disease. This is especially true of nitrogen overdose. For roses, 2 complex mineral dressings per season are enough: at the beginning of the first flowering and in August.

4. No mulching and unwanted neighbors

Everyone strives to step on other people's rakes. I generally danced on them. I listened to all the advice of "smart" gardeners from the Internet. I mulched the ground under roses and black non-woven material, and mowed grass, and even cardboard.

Nothing good about that! Under the mulch, not only moisture is remarkably preserved, but also causative agents of fungal diseases. In addition, ants feel great there, who gladly graze aphids on young shoots of roses. So - down with the mulch!

Loosening after watering retains moisture in the soil is also very good.

As for tips for ground cover plants in the rose garden. Alas and ah. I have not yet managed to find those that would not be susceptible to fungal diseases. If a neighbor falls ill, the disease spreads to roses.

5. Water in the early morning

All other things being equal, morning watering in summer is preferable. But in spring and autumn, you can water it during the day, the main thing is that the water is not ice cold.

When is not so important, but watering should be abundant. If the rose is watered a little, the roots will settle close to the surface and are likely to freeze out in winter.

Young roses love watering with sweetened water, a tablespoon with a top of sugar is enough for 5 liters. After sweet water, be sure to spill the earth with plain water.

6. Ash is our everything

There is no more versatile, cheap and affordable remedy for roses than ordinary wood ash from the stove or from the barbecue.

Ash is a fertilizer that is difficult to overdose. Ash allows the shoots to ripen faster. But ash is not at all to the taste of fungal diseases. If you dust the ground under the roses with ash a couple of times a week, then no fungus will survive. Moreover, chicken droppings and other fertilizers acidify the soil, while ash helps to extinguish its acidity.

Before hiding roses for the winter, as a final chord, I also use ash - you can powder not only the earth, but also the bush itself.

Attention! Ash should not be left out in the rain and stored in damp rooms. So it loses its properties.

7. Shower from potassium permanganate and other options for its use

Potassium permanganate is another remedy for all cases. I always have it at hand. When I cut or graft the roses, the instrument is disinfected in a dark saturated solution of potassium permanganate. Cuttings for propagation are also kept in potassium permanganate.

When buying a new flower in a pot, the first thing I do is spill it with potassium permanganate. And if the rose has an open root system, then the roots are also soaked in a raspberry solution for a few minutes before planting.

After each rain, especially in autumn, when fogs and cold dews begin, I arrange a warm shower for the roses from a pleasantly pink solution.

Potassium permanganate, or rather its weak raspberry solution, is also a foliar dressing for roses at the time of their abundant flowering. But be careful - potassium permanganate crystals that have not dissolved can seriously burn the leaves and flowers. Do not be lazy to strain the solution through cheesecloth.

8. All leftovers go to the fire

When pruning roses, raking the foliage under them, pruning the leaves for the winter, it is important not to store anything on the site. If you put all this in compost, the fungus will multiply perfectly, and the pests will winter wonderfully.

9. Leave for the winter dry

In the middle lane, it is imperative to cover roses. Even if the rose does not freeze without shelter, it will be difficult for her to recover after a difficult winter. On the other hand, over-caring and hiding roses ahead of time guarantees fungal diseases, at a minimum.

Year after year is not necessary. There is a dry and long autumn, then there are no problems with leaving for the winter. We wait for frost, make a "roof", provide ventilation of the shelter. This will keep the roses dry under dry shelter.

If autumn is predicted to be rainy, you will have to tinker a little. The roof over the rose garden should be made a week earlier, leaving the plants under the roof to ventilate and dry. Leaves and unripe shoots in this case must be cut off. And for hilling roses, you have to take dry purchased (or pre-stored) peat.

It is necessary to finally "brick up" the shelter only at stable subzero temperatures.

10. You have to look at roses

Roses wither without attention. It's true. The more often you look at the roses, smell them, take pictures - the less they get sick.

There is no mysticism in this. Just admiring roses, every day I notice the symptoms of their trouble and can quickly help the plants.

Love your roses, and then they will bloom and savor!