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Fuchsia Rust

Its been a bad summer for my fuchsias in pots this year.  They, especially the trailing type, have been affected badly by rust and subsequent leaf drop.

I treated them by a fungus spray in the summer and removed as many rust affected leaves as I could.

I now wonder whether I will be able to pot up and over winter these fuchsias in the greenhouse to use again next summer?

Does anyone have any advice on this please?

 

 

 

 

Posts

  • Hi lizmac, glad you posted this question as my trailing fuschias have also been a dead loss this year but I was not aware of any rust and it's too dark now to go and check.  I thought it was probably down to a load of dufff compost.  They have hardly grown since I planted them so would like to use them again next year if possible.

  • nodlisabnodlisab Posts: 414

    I grow at least 50 Fuchsias a year for baskets and this has been the worst year for rust that I can remember. Rust will not affect overwintering your plants.What I do every October is strip every plant of all its leaves and flowers and cut them back by about a third, I then remove them from the baskets and repot them individually.Provided they are kept above 5 degrees they will start to sprout new growth over the winter. Hope this helps.

  • lizmaclizmac Posts: 77

    Thanks nodlisab -  I do exactly what you do to overwinter but I did not know whether rust goes through the plant system to affect the stems and roots etc.

    Billie - look underneath the leaves - most of the rust settles there but you can also see spotting on top of the leaves and then they shrivel and start to drop.

  • Hi nodisab and thanks for all the info.  I have now looked carefully at the eight different types of trailing fuschias but cannot see any sign of rust or disease, i fact, apart from being compact, they look healthy.  I planted them in four long window type boxes with bedding geraniums behind them and also some trailing bidens.

    This is where it became strange.  The bidens never trailed but have just grown upright.  The geraniums, although they flowered, never grew more than 6" maximum and the fuschias just grew over the sides of the boxes but certainly didn't trail.  By August, the boxes looked so strange I could hardly be bothered to water them but did wonder, like lizmac, whether it was worth trying to over winter the fuscias and geraniums and hope they perform better next year.

    I'm now convinced it was the JA Bowers mpc, as I planted some of the remaining geraniums into pots using Squires compost in a different part of the garden and they developed into good sized plants.

    So, I think I will go ahead on the info you have given regarding cutting the fuscias back and hope for better luck next year.  

  • BookertooBookertoo Posts: 1,306

    Well, all the years I have grown hardy and basket fuchsias I never knew they got rust!  I guess I am very lucky, but will be far more observant about their welfare now. Is it worse in hardy or  basket ones?  I am about to pot up my basket ones for a winter in the cool greenhouse, and although I have never stripped them from leaves, I can see the reasoning - may try that with some of them.

  • lizmaclizmac Posts: 77

    My standard fuchsias fared much better than the trailing ones. A variety of trailing 'La Campanella' were the worst.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • BerkleyBerkley Posts: 431
    As well as being affected by rust a lot of my fuchsias seem to have been "leggy" this year. Is this due to weather conditions - or should I have done more pinching out at an early stage? Thanks for useful info. about minimum Winter temperature....
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