Clean sweep under your roses now for a clean slate next year.

10/29/2001
Clean sweep under your roses now for a clean slate next year.

The single most frustrating problem about growing roses for most gardeners is disease. Rust, mildew, and especially blackspot can frustrate even the most attentive among us, especially if we're trying to keep to organic methods. Even non-organic gardeners get sick of spraying their roses; it's simply not fun!

The reason rose fungal diseases are so persistent is that their spores persist in the environment over the winter. If no effective clean-up and control methods are used, the amount of spores lurking ready to infect your plants as soon as they dare to poke out some foliage increases from year to year.

The good news is that some strict sanitation now can greatly reduce the presence of disease among your roses come next spring. The guiding principle here is to drastically reduce the "inoculum" or dose of disease organisms in the immediate environment of your rose plants. All through the growing season, your infected roses dropped fungal spores and fungusy leaves all over the ground beneath them.

Break the disease cycle by doing a clean sweep under your roses as soon as all their leaves have fallen. If the season is almost over, you can go ahead and strip off the last of the foliage even before it falls. Remove all debris--leaves, petals, twigs--and either burn it or put it in a plastic bag for the garbage man. Never put rose debris on the compost pile; all the fungal spores will persist and simply proliferate on any available victims when you spread the compost.

Then go one step further. Strip off and dispose of at least the top inch of mulch below your roses as well. Replace it with an inch of fresh, clean mulch. Now, spray your roses' canes and the ground beneath them with the fungicide of your choice. Organic gardeners can use a product such as RoseDefense TM, Bordeaux mixture, or lime sulfur oil. You have now done everything possible to ensure your roses start the 2002 growing season with a clean slate.

Share