More Plant Problems: WTF is Lemongrass Rust Disease
I’ve posted a few times on Instagram about my lemongrass plants. I started them from lemongrass I brought at the grocery store in the middle of last winter.
They spent the summer in pots on the deck, getting bigger and bigger. Then in the fall, I dug them out of their pots and crammed all 5 of them into one pot together. That was probably my first mistake...
I have a new plant problem this week. My Lemongrass has rust virus. Puccinia nakanishikii.
Yeah. I’d never heard of it either.
It's a fungal disease, and it spreads by spores.
When I brought the lemongrass plants indoors, I set them on the desk in my sister’s office near a south-facing window. I didn’t realize there was a problem until my sister started commenting on the powder all over her desk from them. Finally, I had a closer look and realized that it wasn’t just like ordinary house dust.
To be honest, I think it was on them before I brought them in the house. I just didn’t realize what it was. Outside, it wasn’t really a problem; they were still growing happily despite the rust. Luckily, the virus seems to only affect Lemongrass and a few other grasses in the same family, so none of my other plants should catch it. In addition, it's not problematic for humans, so in theory, I could still use my lemongrass in recipes.
There are little lines of small rust-coloured bumps on the backside of almost all of my lemongrass leaves. When you touch them, they turn into fine dust and fall onto everything below them.
It damages the leaves, causing yellow or brown necrotic streaks. It will eventually kill off leaves if it gets too bad, and some sources say it can kill the whole plant; others say it won’t.
Lemongrass Rust: Lots of Rust, Very Little Info
The information online about lemongrass rust disease is generally concerned with outdoor plants, like those grown ornamentally and commercially in Hawai’i, where the disease was first reported in 1985. Much of the information is scientific reports, so there’s not much information about dealing with it on houseplants. However, GardeningKnowHow does have one article, and Garden Guy Hawaii wrote briefly about it in 2014. There’s not even a Wikipedia entry for it...
From what I’ve read, it occurs most commonly when plants are water-stressed, either over or under-watered, crowded, and lacking nutrients. Mine is suffering from under-watering for sure. It's bloody dry in central Alberta, and I’m not great at remembering to water it.
So, what do I do now?
The typical advice is to keep your plant healthy, cut out the diseased leaves, and use mulch to prevent water from splashing the spores onto more leaves.
How I’m Dealing with Lemongrass Rust Disease
I started by giving the whole thing a haircut today; check out the before and after pictures.
I am removing all the leaves that have evidence of rust on them. But, I’m not entirely optimistic that this will help very much. As I was cutting the leaves off, obviously, the rust dust spread by spores was falling on all the other leaves.
Next up, on Sunday, I’m splitting them out and giving each plant its own pot. I’m debating throwing out the soil, since it's also covered in spores, washing the plants well (who thought I’d be washing all my plants this fall/winter, not me.) From there, I’m going to have to give them a little more TLC.
Lemongrass is tropical. They grow in the wild in warm, humid places, originally native to India and Sri Lanka, where it is used in many amazing recipes.
My plan for keeping them alive is to:
Cut out diseased leaves
Repot into individual pots
Cover the soil with gravel
Raise the humidity
Start fertilizing them
Move them somewhere that I see them more often
I may consider adding pebble trays, but if nothing else, start misting them daily and watering them more frequently. We’ll see how it gets through the winter.
It seems like this winter is going to be a season of follow up blogs about my plants that have problems. I really hope that I will be able to show you successes in some of those cases. These are some of the hazards of caring for plants, and I think I would be remiss to pretend this doesn’t happen.
Plants & Mental Health: An Opportunity for Vulnerability
There are some sad moments being a plant parent:
When a beloved (or expensive) plant dies
When your plants get bugs
When Alberta hail storms destroy your whole garden
It can be surprisingly devastating to lose a plant and a huge emotional blow to lose your whole garden (not to mention significant damage to your home and vehicles).
I’ve mentioned many times how plants and gardening help me manage my mental health. But, I don’t go into depth about it, and the reality is that, even though there is lots of healing, there are also some really tough moments.
I feel like those are more vulnerable topics, but I want to talk about them because I think they’re important.
So, I’m launching an e-newsletter, Tea & Evergreens, in December. It’ll still have lots of plant and gardening stuff, but it’ll also include more stuff related to how plants and gardening connect to mental health. If you’re interested, you can sign up here. I promise I’ll never sell or share your information, I’ll never spam you, and you are free to unsubscribe at any time.
I’m aiming for once a month to start, maybe twice a month eventually, and I’ll do my best to keep them short and hopefully insightful.
I’d love it if you sign up for Tea & Evergreens.
Cut out diseased leaves
Repot into individual pots
Cover the soil with gravel
Raise the humidity
Start fertilizing them
Move them somewhere that I see them more often
I may consider adding pebble trays, but if nothing else, start misting them daily and watering them more frequently. We’ll see how it gets through the winter.
It seems like this winter is going to be a season of follow up blogs about my plants that have problems. I really hope that I will be able to show you successes in some of those cases. These are some of the hazards of caring for plants, and I think I would be remiss to pretend this doesn’t happen.
Plants & Mental Health: An Opportunity for Vulnerability
There are some sad moments being a plant parent:
When a beloved (or expensive) plant dies
When your plants get bugs
When Alberta hail storms destroy your whole garden
It can be surprisingly devastating to lose a plant and a huge emotional blow to lose your whole garden (not to mention significant damage to your home and vehicles).
I’ve mentioned many times how plants and gardening help me manage my mental health. But, I don’t go into depth about it, and the reality is that, even though there is lots of healing, there are also some really tough moments.
I feel like those are more vulnerable topics, but I want to talk about them because I think they’re important.
So, I’m launching an e-newsletter, Tea & Evergreens, in December. It’ll still have lots of plant and gardening stuff, but it’ll also include more stuff related to how plants and gardening connect to mental health. If you’re interested, you can sign up here. I promise I’ll never sell or share your information, I’ll never spam you, and you are free to unsubscribe at any time.
I’m aiming for once a month to start, maybe twice a month eventually, and I’ll do my best to keep them short and hopefully insightful.
I’d love it if you sign up for Tea & Evergreens.