i dont do HH's ...

but in my world.. snip off the bad leaves.. and see if it spreads to new leaves ...

perhaps it was just a transitory insult.. and its gone now ... so cleaning up is sometimes good enough ...

also.. a lot of HH are tall.. losing a couple low leaves is not going to matter in a month or two ...

i am sure there are chems or org solutions you can spray all over them..

but i like to see if a little cleanup cant do it .. before i jump to remedies ... above and beyond..

ken

Thanks, Ken, I'll take all the sick leaves off.

I don't see any of the reddish (rust colored) spots that are associated with Puccinia malvacearum in your picture. Do you see any reddish spots like those in some of these pictures?

If those leaves were on a zinnia plant, I would strongly suspect a nutrient deficiency.

ZM

Nope. It's rust.

Zen, most of the leaves are dotted all over with rust. It's hard to see in the pic if you look at the top leaves, but look carefully at the lower ones.

I'm going to do as Ken suggests and remove the diseased leaves today, and will try treating it with Consan and see if that helps. I've e-mailed them about it and hope to have an answer soon.

The only other option is to remove them and I'm not ready to give up on them yet.

I'm not having a hard time believing that this is hollyhock rust, even though we haven't been provided with a good image.

For one, the older (lower) leaves are the most affected. I also don't see any indication of mulch or other intensive housekeeping required to keep this fungus at bay. Lastly, this is one of the most common of garden diseases specific to hollyhock. It might be unusual if you didn't have problems.

I don't typically take someone 's word for it, lol...but if you tell me that the underside of the leaves are all icky and bumpy, I'll believe you. :-)

I don't think that Consan is an appropriate choice. The "Danger " signal word on the label worries me greatly. Also, I see nothing on the label that this toxic product does a single thing to cure rust on your hollyhock. It may 'prevent ' the spread but that is a far cry from curing an already infected plant.

I don't know if this will help you or not, but when mine got rust spots, I got rid of them completely. Then I bought a couple more and planted them way over on the other side of the yard. 2 years now and no sign of rust. I blamed the rust on cucumber plants that were in the vicinity, and seemed to have the same thing.

I e-mailed the Consan company and got a reply pretty fast. They said it will help control rust. I removed the infected leaves and sprayed the plants and watered the ground around them with the consan. If the new leaves are still badly infected, I'll take the plants out. I have 3 in the front yard that are badly infected and one in the back yard that's much healthier, though it has some rust too. I have some seeds that I want to plant this fall, and maybe if I put them in large pots and grow them there, they'll be away from the ground where I think the infection is. I don't have any cucumbers, and haven't grown hollyhocks in many years, and have no idea where this came from, it must be in the air. I have snapdragons in large containers and they don't have any rust, and they're susceptible to it, but I don't know if it's the same pathogen.

Knowledge is important. The fungal strain that affects cucumbers cannot infect hollyhock. Period. 'Rust ' is simply the common name for a very long list of SPECIES SPECIFIC fungal disorders.

It IS airborne. Snapdragons cannot be a carrier. Cucumbers are not carriers. It is NOT a soil borne disease. You would do a great deal to help yourself with about five minutes of internet research. Use Puccinia malvacearum as your starting point.....or, simply, hollyhock rust. Honestly and truly, knowledge is power.

You watered the soil with the Cosan? Why?

Rhizo, it sounds like you're a bit frustrated. Forgive me for not knowing about hollyhock rust. I haven't grown them in 15 years or so. I did look up hollyhock rust and found two chemical treatments that I'm not going to use, and that's about it, other than saying to remove the plants. I treated the soil because I know that a lot of fungal diseases are airborne, yes, and some live in the soil and leaf litter on the ground as well. I know that much from growing roses, they say to treat the soil, too, if your roses have fungal diseases. I have a lot of experience with orchids, too, and it's good to treat the potting medium if your orchids have fungal diseases, too. And since some of the HH leaves were already on the ground, it made sense to me that it could be there, and could become airborne by wind or water. I was simply going on past experience and education with fungal diseases in other types of plants. I don't think that's unreasonable.

I did more than 5 minutes worth of research online, looked at several websites that said basically the same thing, and went to a local garden center and was told that snaps also have rust, but I pointed out to that person that it may not be the same type of fungus, and mine aren't affected by any diseases, so I guessed I was probably right. I also don't grow cukes, and they won't grow here when it's this cold anyway.

I found out about Consan by contacting the company. None of the websites I read said anything about it, and it's pretty harmless to people and doesn't stay in the environment, so that's why I used it instead of more expensive, and much more toxic chemicals that were recommended online and by the person at the garden center.

I liked this information, best:
(1) http://www.finegardening.com/how-to/qa/dealing-hollyhock-rust.aspx
(2) http://www.ehow.com/how_2362629_prevent-rust-colored-spots-hollyhocks.html

I planted giant hollyhocks last year from tiny plants in early summer. They took off fast, by 2012 fall they had the pustules. By late 2013 winter they were already massively leafing out--pustules again. I cut everything off--but even that was not enough. I plan to put mulch at base which has been sheered of leaves touching the ground and look for some high sulfur organic spray. Open to hear of successful concoctions others have used.

As far as I know, Consan is not systemic, so I think that would keep it from being very effective against Puccinia malvacearum. I use the similar product, Physan 20, on my zinnias, primarily as an aid in sterilizing pots and trays. (Some hospitals use it in their mop water.) I also have used it as a drench for germinating seedlings, but its efficacy in that application is unproven.

They say that the best defense is a good offense. Following that philosophy, I think we need a systemic fungicide that kills Puccinia malvacearum.

There are a few systemic fungicides (I use Tebuconazole on my zinnias) and they have a lot of advantages over surface fungicides like sulfur. The systemics stay inside the plant and are not washed off by rain. Even a heavy dew can wash off some surface fungicides, like the potassium-bicarbonate-based GreenCure (which I still use from time to time, because it is so non-toxic). The systemics also protect new growth, which is completely unprotected by a previous surface sprayed product.

The systemics do need to be re-applied on my rapidly growing zinnias, simply because their plant volume increases significantly, which dilutes the existing systemic. I usually reapply systemics on my crucial extra-choice breeder zinnias every two or three weeks to compensate for their continually increasing sap volume. My original tubular-petaled "mutant" zinnia got a biweekly application of Bayer All-In-One Rose & Flower Care throughout its extra-long lifetime, giving it at least double the lifetime of a "normal" zinnia.

I don't know if there is a systemic effective against Puccinia malvacearum, but if I were growing hollyhocks, I would be looking for one.

ZM

Hmm. I've grown holly hocks for many years. They just spring up everywhere. Then last year they had some rust. I didn't pay too much attention as there were other distractions in my life that caused me to neglect my garden a bit. This year it decimated them, probably because I didn't dispose of all of the old plant parts. I had to cut this years down and throw them in the burn pile along with as much debris as I could reasonable scoop up. Baby plants are springing up, so I've thrown cornmeal on the soil then mulched and I plan to water with a 1/4 cup of milk in my watering can every other week for 3 weeks.
I'll let you all know how it goes. Just wanted to get an organic solution into the mix.
Kathy

I just noticed this is in the annuals forum. I searched Hollyhock rust and came directly to the thread. My Hollyhocks have roots the size of my arms that baby plants grow off. Seems like they are perennial to me. Maybe I have some old single variety.
Also, spraying with a little milk in a lot of water was recommended for plants not too far gone. My new ones are so short, I will just use the watering can.
Kathy