How is rose blight detected and treated?

Image – Flickr/Scot Nelson

The mold It is one of the diseases that most affects plants, both horticultural and ornamental. In the case of the rose bush, it is a bush which, unfortunately, is also unable to resist its attack.

For it, it is important to know how to identify the symptoms it causes, and also, how it is treated. And it is that the mildew of the rose is not a potentially serious disease, but it is necessary to be aware of it and to apply a treatment as soon as the first damage appears.

What is mold?

Image – Flickr/Scot Nelson

Mildew is a disease caused by oomycetes such as Phytopthora, Plasmopara or Peronospara, the latter being the one that attacks roses. like mushrooms, these feel very comfortable in humid and warm environmentsthey therefore generally appear after an episode of rain in spring or summer.

In addition, if the plant is already weakenedeither because it has received an excess of water, or because the soil in which it grows does not allow good aeration of the roots, which happens in very heavy and compact soils, it’s easier to end up with mold. In other words: if you have your needs covered and the soil is well drained, it is rare for you to get sick.

How does it affect the rose bush?

Related article:

Pests and diseases of roses

Symptoms of downy mildew in roses are:

• First, yellow spots appear on the upper side of the leaves which brown over time. Further, later they are covered with a gray powder.
• If the rose bush is young and/or has soft, non-lignified stems, it can also end up damaging them.showing these little yellow spots.

In very severe cases, the diseased rose bush will be left leafless, so it will take a long time to regrow. Fortunately, there are things we can do to give you a chance to move on.

What is the treatment for rose blight?

If you suspect your rose bush is moldy, you need to treat it. On the market there are chemicals and others that are environmentally friendly. For instance, as far as chemicals are concerned, the most effective are those containing: mancozeb, fosetil (on sale here) or copper oxychloride. And if you opt for natural products, the following are very interesting: nettle extract (on sale here), or horsetail extract (Equisetum) which you can buy here.

But whichever one is to be applied, we must follow the instructions that we will find on the packagingOtherwise, the cure could be worse than the disease, as they say in Spain.

Of course, on top of that, you also need to do something else:

Watch the watering

As we said, oomycetes appear when it has rained a lot and/or constantly, but also if we have watered the rose bush a lot. For this reason, it is important to control irrigation. Yes This can be done in a very simple way: before adding water, insert a wooden stick at the bottom. Then, when you extract it, you will see if the ground is wet or if it is dry.

If you have your rose bush in a pot, it is better not to put a saucer underneath to prevent the roots from rotting.

Do not plant it on heavy and compact ground

This is valid whether you have it in a pot or whether you prefer to plant it in the garden. The rose bush is a fairly hardy plant, but if placed in very compact soil, it could end up suffering from mildew or other diseases.

For this reason, the ideal is to have it in a rather light soil and above all that it has good drainage. So, if it is going to be in a pot, we will put a universal substrate that contains perlite, and if it is going to be in the garden, first of all we will have to make a hole of about 40 x 40 centimeters, fill add water and see if it is quickly absorbed; if so, then we will plant it, but if not, we will fill it with a mixture of peat and perlite in equal parts.

Don’t water it from above

Watering plants from above can only be done if the air humidity is low and they need to be high, or if it is very hot and we want to cool them. But In any case, this will be done when the sun no longer shines directly on them, otherwise the leaves will burnthey will weaken and mold may appear if we do it so frequently.

Apply a fungicide if it is going to rain

You can use products suitable for organic farming, such as nettle manure, or certain systemic fungicides. But no doubt take care of the rosebush, especially if you see that it is weak, can help you prevent mildew.

Rose blight can kill the plant, but if we catch it in time, it will surely recover.