24-06-2003, 10:56 PM
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White mold on edge of leaves
From: "Moll McCarty"
Date: Tue, Jun 24, 2003 11:30 AM
Message-id:
This year I planted 5 Alchemilla mollis plants(Ladies Mantles) in a raised
bed, well drained, well mulched. Yesterday one of them has a thin white
line
edging along all serations of every one of it's leaves. I think it's mold,
tried spraying with cinnemon tea but the sprayer got clogged up! Any
suggestions? I am afraid this will spread to the group of them.
Thank You,
Moll
Have you checked the white stuff to see if it can rub off at all? Mold or
mildew will show up on your fingers if you rub it, although that won't be the
way to clear it up. It's unusual for Lady's Mantle to get foliar diseases, so
let's look at other possibilities. I see that the weather is quite hot in
parts of Wisconsin today, if that is where you are. Has this suddenly become
the case, as it has here in the Northeast, after a long cool wet spring? If
so, it could be a kind of sunburn effect. I've been growing Alchemilla mollis
for years and it does indeed get sunburned, particularly if the leaves are wet
and the weather has suddenly turned hot and sunny. Mulching can't protect
leaves, of course. It usually recovers nicely, with some judicious cutting
back of damaged leaves. If you're noticing the problem on the leaves along the
flower stems, well....that's just the aging process. Those leaves will
deteriorate as the blooms mature.
As for the sprayer, it's necessary to filter the tea very well before pouring
it into a sprayer. Sediment will indeed clog up most sprayers. You can use
fine cheesecloth, or better still, paper coffee filters. If the plant is
getting sunburned, the spray won't help, of course, and could worsen the
situation. (I've had no luck with cinnamon spray for powdery mildew, by the
way, but I hear about positive experiences with it.)
You could dig up the plant, pot it up and isolate it until it shows signs of
recovery. It could simply be a weaker plant than the others and thus be more
susceptible to whatever ails it, sunburn included.
Best,
Tyra
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