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Black Spot... Oh No!!!!

OK, no here's MY problem!!!! I have, let's see.... 1,2,3,4...5.... about 10 rose bushes growing in various areas around my house/back & front yards...

I was watering the other day and noticed.... oh boy.... the dreaded 'black spot' fungus on my rose bushes, and a white powdery 'ick' on my Magnolia... Actually, there's one out of three Magnolias that also has this orange bumpy 'stuff' on the leaves as well as the white powder.

Now, I ran inside and Google'd the fungus... I've heard of them before. Actually, I noticed the white powder last week, but I'd recently added Epsom Salts around my rose bushes and a little bit to the other plants... just for good measure.

I grabbed my Miracle Gro feeder, baking soda, and dish soap.... and straight to work I went. I sprayed the leaves or the rose bushes generously, as well as the other infected plants, adjacent plants... OK, so I sprayed the entire garden... but I payed special attention to the roses and Magnolia.

My question for you is... Is there anything else I can do to insure that my plants do well and survive? Is there something that I may have done wrong with the baking soda/dishsoap mix? I pretty much followed directions~ Tablespoon of baking soda and a 'drop' of dishsoap per estimated gallon of water... OK, so I 'estimated', just because I don't have a way to measure with my feeder... and I really didn't feel like whipping out the calculator and looking up mathematical equations for my 'home remidy' fungus fix.

HELP!!! My roses have done so well. My neighbors and family are so proud of how well I've done, since I'm still a 'greenie' (ha ha, bad pun, I know), wet behind the ears... etc... I don't want to lose my precious roses.You're my hope!!!! I trust my friends here so much (even if you're not my 'official' friend... you're still my friend!!!)... I believe I can learn more here than anywhere else I look for answers.

Tags: advice, answer, answers, friends, fungus, help, question, roses

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Comment by liz joseph on September 10, 2009 at 8:40am: Oh no! Harry, do you mean pour gasoline on my roses and around them... to kill the entire plant? Oh crap. I hope not. I have about 11 rose bushes. All purchased between $10.88 and $17.95 ea.... = a ton of money that I didn't have to begin with, LOL. I hope I can save them.

I've plucked all the infected leaves off of the plants, raked up the ground underneath and adjacent, and used a spray concoction of 1T baking soda to 1 gal of water with a drop of dishsoap. It seems to have worked, but I assume I'll need to reapply because the fungus comes from hot August days and cool nights, from what I've heard... and it makes sense.

I'm enjoying the blooms of my many rose breeds every day. So many different colors. I've taken lots of photos so I can remember what my yards looked like in the summer over the winter. Did that make sense? Oh well. It's early. My diction and grammar are a bit off, LOL.

Thanks, everyone, for all your comments, advice, and help. I appreciate it all!!!

Comment by Harry Larsen on September 4, 2009 at 9:03pm: Hi Liz,

Good info provided here already. About the only way to really kill your roses is to withhold water for long periods of time or pour gasoline on them.

They should come back next spring.

Harry

Comment by Sue Anderson on August 29, 2009 at 10:02pm: Black spot and roses just seem to go together. The fungus spreads via water drops. I live where the humidity is very high in the summer so that and the drenching thunderstorms double up to attack my roses. I figure it is a given black spot is waiting to happen. It happens every summer and it can be a horror if I get lazy and don't spray.

The natural anti-fungal recipe sounds right but I use 3 tsp Baking Soda in a 2 gallon bucket of water dissolved with 1 Tbs dish soap. Make sure to put this mixture in a good quality sprayer; I have a Hudson sprayer that works on manual compression and swear by it. Hose down the roses before you spray and let them dry. Then spray. Be sure to spray UNDER the leaves as well and spray until the liquid drips off. Do this every day as you are fighting a fungal infection and it needs attention now to get better.

Pick up all the fallen leaves and destroy them as they are infected. If you use clippers on roses, just take a disinfectant wipe and clean off the clippers before you go to each rose bush otherwise you can spread disease. Roses need a lot of sun to keep their leaves dry and they need good air circulation as well so keep them pruned. Water in the morning so the leaves have a chance to dry.

Wishing you all the best on your battle against the dreaded black spot!

Comment by Diane Meyers zone 6/7 Or. on August 29, 2009 at 9:26pm: Everyone has black spot at one time or another, one of the best cures is to remove all infected leaves and I mean all, even if they are just a bit yellow. Rake them up very very very well, seal in a bag and put in the trash. Put mulch around the bushes in case some black spot spores are still there. You can use wet newspaper, wood chips etc, Your new growth should be lush and black spot free