I’m getting cloudy white spots on a handful of leaves, mostly those at the midpoint height, between the surface leaves and tallest stem leaves. It looks like some kind of fungal disease and is recurring from previous years (although it seems like it’s not as bad this year compared to other years). Does anyone have any knowledge/experience on what this disease could be and/or any suggestions on what to do to combat it? Would it be helpful to prune the infected leaves? I cut off about 3 that looked the worst and not sure if I should cut off 2 more that are showing early signs
Lotus Fungal Disease?
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mrsclem
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Looks like powdery mildew. Be careful about cutting off leaves. The stems are hollow and if water gets in them, the tuber could rot.
I've cut them off at the very base of the leaf so that there are several inches of stem above the surface of the water. I guess water could technically still get in through the stem if it rains, but would probably be very little. I have a cylindrical-shaped cage made of bird netting that sits on top of the pot surrounding the lotus (you can kind of see it at the bottom of the picture), so that the birds stop trying to take baths in there and making a mess. It somewhat limits the movement of the leaves and stems with the wind, so do you think that may contribute to the formation of the powdery mildew or is it unrelated? I have no idea why it keeps showing up. The only possible causes I can come up with is contamination from insects landing on the leaves and transmitting the disease, the netting limiting its movement and keeping leaves crowded together, or transmission of the disease from a grapevine standing above the pot via rain droplets falling down onto the leaves (although the grapevine doesn't seem to show the same visible symptoms)
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mrsclem
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Grapes are very susceptible to powdery mildew so it may be coming from that. It could also be that the net is crowding the leaves.
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Nearly everything here in Florida gets powdery mildew and the key to prevention is good air movement. I don’t know anything about lotus but I wonder if it would help to give it a larger container or thin it out. Can they be divided?
j.w
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You guys in Florida better keep on the move then cuz you cannot be divided
Yea I believe it may be mainly a combination of the two, if not also aphids and other pests carrying over the disease. I will have to test it out next year and find a spot that does not have the grapevine overhead and is a few feet away. My backyard is quite small so I don't have much to work with. I'm also going to work on making a shorter bird-netting cage that will allow for free leaf movement but prevent the birds from making the pot their bathtub. Had to trim off a few more leaves this morning that were showing mild symptoms. 4th year and no blooms so far, and it's not looking too promising for the rest of the summer
I have a dwarf lotus so the pot I have it in right now should be comfortable for it, but I can look into other potential options. Yes the lotus tuber can be divided and I am planning on doing so this upcoming spring since I skipped last year in order to allow it to mature. And I know for sure there is a section that rotted, which I want to get rid of