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Is this the disease called 'rust' & plant ID please

Posted by ladyecheveria (My Page) on
Mon, Jun 5, 06 at 5:13

Hello everyone,

I'm hoping that someone is able to tell me if this disease is called 'rust' or not and how to treat it. It seems to be affecting all my Crassula type plants. As I can't work out how to paste a photo directly here, I have uploaded the photos to another website. The addresses are below

http://img319.imageshack.us/img319/2860/crassulaperfoliarust31sk.jpg
http://img191.imageshack.us/img191/5803/crassulaperfoliarust43gu.jpg

It starts off as pinpoint sized red/brown spots on the top sides of leaves (all over actually) and grows to form large brown areas. Secondly, I am hoping someone is able to correctly ID the plant for me as the label when purchased said it was Crassula perfoliata, but I have searched google and found a very similar plant which was ID'd as being Crassula nudicaulis! So now I'm not sure of its correct name!

Kind Regards,
Katrina

ps have posted same query on other cacti/succulent forums in the past couple of days, but no replies yet. Please help if you can? Thank you!


Follow-Up Postings:

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RE: Is this the disease called 'rust' & plant ID please

  • Posted by hablu z8 Netherlands (My Page) on
    Mon, Jun 5, 06 at 5:41

Don't know the name of the dissease. what I do is: take some good leaves of the plant and start again. The "rusty" one I throw away. greetz hablu


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RE: Is this the disease called 'rust' & plant ID please

Dear ladyecheveria,

I think your plant may be Crassula dubia.

I did a bit of research ... the following is a digest of what I have found ... i am no authority .

Apparently Crassulas are notorious for getting fungal rust-type damage and need to be grown with protection from winter rains .

But it seems plain your plant is sick and unlikely to recover, furthermore it may infect other plants. So the first thing to do if you want to try to save it is to dig it up pot it up and place it in quarantine.

By all means try to strike a leaf, though this does not seem the best time to me ,it seems Crassulas grow in winter .But in our winter it may be getting too much water and hence higher humidity which would increase the liklihood of fungal infection.

It would seem that you need take off those VERY damaged leaves immediately as they won't get better and then move it to an airy location with more sun.

Soap and water is good for killing fungi so apparently is dishwashing liquid

Deny it water for a month , then water from the bottom ie keeping the ariel parts dry eg. fill a saucer and let this be absorbed from the bottom for 15mins.

Also I have read that as it is a fungal infection , you can wash the leaves in soapy water or dishwashing liquid ,[I would not let this soak into the potting mix ] and I would dry it off, alternatively you could apply some anti fungal preparation.

I have also read a suggestion that "Perhaps a foot powder that claims to get rid of fungus, or Cinnamon"

If it survives the leaves may remain scarred but in time they can be removed.

If it dies well make sure you give your new plant more protection in winter , more light,sun and less water.

I derived all this information from simply entering the word "Rust" into the search provision on the Us forum. You should try it. One person seems to have had exactly the same problem I think her name was Brenda .. try contacting her directly she may have saved hers.
Regards,
Baldric


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RE: Is this the disease called 'rust' & plant ID please

Thank you hablu & Baldric!

I think I'll have to do as you both have suggested - take some unaffected leaves, pot these up, throw out the affected parts and start again! I thought there might be a spray or something I could use to kill the fungus(?), allowing the plant to be saved!

Guess not :(

Baldric, a big THANK YOU for the effort you put in, the well thought out points, & your courtesy towards a novice succulent gardener. I think I may just pot up one, wash the leaves in soapy water as suggested, and see how it goes. I have about half a dozen of the same plant, and about the same number of crassula falcata - all showing very small pin point rust spots, so if some or all are lost, then I will just have to start again!

After digging up all these and potting them up, the plan of action is to leave one plant as is, wash leaves off on another, and a third one to be sprayed with an anti-fungacide as an experiment.

Finally, I will visit the US forum and look up 'rust' and Brenda? as you've suggested Baldric.

Thank you again!


 
 

 

 


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