Zinnia problems. Infection?

timK13 · Mon Jul 21, 2014 12:21 pm

hi so I am coming to this page due to my Zinnia problem. My Zinnias have been great and I had a really great bloom this year early summer. Well within about the last weeks I noticed a really bad infection of some sort going through some of my Zinnia plants. The plants look really disgusting and I just don't know what it is. I have had a japenese beetle, leaf-hopper, and leaf-footed nymph problem in my garden but have gotten rid of most of them all. I have heard that leaf-hoppers can inject a virus into the plant and maybe that's what this is. I planted them in Miracle Grow and I fertilize them weekly. I doubt it's a nutritional problem but I'm open to any solution. Also, my flowers bloomed really well but now in mid summer they are coming to a stand still. My fertilizer does have Phosphorus in it so I don't think its a P deficiency. I just recently discovered the art of deadheading and I'm hoping that will work. However, I have some branches that are completely grown in (like the one in one of the pictures I attached) with no bud on it at all. I was wondering if I should chop that off and hope it grows back with a bud on it the next time or if I should just leave it and it will grow a bud eventually. Thanks for any advice!

https://pics.davesgarden.com/pics/2014/0 ... f405c2.jpg
https://pics.davesgarden.com/pics/2014/0 ... e2d68a.jpg
https://pics.davesgarden.com/pics/2014/0 ... 30e712.jpg

catgrass · Mon Jul 21, 2014 12:29 pm

You don't say where you are located, but I am in South Louisiana. Hot & humid. Every summer, starting about this time, my zinnias get this. It is a bacterial leaf spot, I think. Once infected, you can't get rid of it, but it doesn't affect the blooming much, just looks ugly. Dead head often, don't water from above. If they are really close together, consider a little bit of thinnning. Heat & humidity bring it on, and I have never been able to conquer it. So, I just live with it.

timK13 · Mon Jul 21, 2014 5:08 pm

hi I'm located in North Carolina and its been above 90 everyday for practically the last month and a half. 80%+ humidity every day. you say don't water from above? so as to not wet the flower itself? I assume so it doesn't grow a fungus or support the bacterial infection? thanks a lot for the reply

catgrass · Tue Jul 22, 2014 10:16 am

Yes, try not to wet the leaves. The splashing helps pass the infection on.

ElizabethB · Tue Jul 22, 2014 10:52 am

DITTO Catgrass - I live in south central Louisiana. Very hot and humid. Good air circulation helps also bottom watering. Try not to get splash back on the leaves. Dead heading will encourage more blooms. Zinnias also make great cut flowers. In the humid south zinnias are also susceptible to powdery mildew. With our long growing season zinnias begin to recover as the weather cools in the fall. You do have to dead head and harvest blooms to keep them blooming. They are annuals so you have to trick them into producing more blooms by not allowing them to go to seed. If they go to seed the plants will quit blooming and die.

Good luck

timK13 · Tue Jul 22, 2014 11:45 am

sounds good thank you all for the advice

NatureHillsNursery · Thu Jul 24, 2014 10:21 pm

My guess is also bacterial leaf spot or some sort of fungus. Sounds like you already received some good advice. The only encouragement I would offer is that your Zinnias will probably still keep blooming so try to enjoy the flowers and overlook the spotted leaves. Happy gardening!