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Black spots on Sunflower! Please help!

Rachel-9696Rachel-9696 Posts: 8
in Plants
Hello, 

I have grown a few sunflowers from seed and seem to have some black spots appearing on one of them. Couldn’t see any bugs on them that might be causing it and they are watered after the sun goes down to avoid the leaves burning. Seemed to only be on the leaves and not on the stem.

Any help us much appreciated. 

Take care and stay safe! 

Rachel 
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Posts

  • Rachel-9696Rachel-9696 Posts: 8
    Update: have found lots of ants crawling over stem and leaves. Could this be causing it? 

    Thanks, 

    Rachel
  • stevenanthonykellettstevenanthonykellett Posts: 1
    Hi Rachel, 
    I'm having exactly the same problem, although I don't have any ants.  Did you get anywhere towards a solution? 
    Regards, 
    Steven 
    Regards, 
    Steven 
  • rebeccamM6CA_Gn6rebeccamM6CA_Gn6 Posts: 133
    Not sure if could be Alternaria?
  • Rachel-9696Rachel-9696 Posts: 8
    rebeccamM6CA_Gn6 said:
    Not sure if could be Alternaria?
    Hello, 

    Thank you, I’ve had a quick google and it looks slightly different. It might just be that’s it’s not as far along as the photos on google which is why it doesn’t quite look the same. It hasn’t worsened or anything and leaves haven’t wilted or gone brown. Just dark black spots. 

    Might do a bit more research and do whatever it suggests to resolve Alternaria just incase. 

    All the best, 

    Rachel
  • Rachel-9696Rachel-9696 Posts: 8
    stevenanthonykellett said:
    Hi Rachel, 
    I'm having exactly the same problem, although I don't have any ants.  Did you get anywhere towards a solution? 
    Regards, 
    Steven 
    Hi Steven, 

    Not so far yet. It’s only affected one out of 6 and hasn’t gotten any worse recently. The stem is still strong and there isn’t any brown spots just black spots. Very strange. Do you have just the one or more? 

    All the best, 

    Rachel
  • Rachel-9696Rachel-9696 Posts: 8
    Songbird-1 said:
    I’ve googled Alternaria leaf blight and found one picture that looks very like your sunflower marking.👍
    Perhaps just nip them off?
    Thank you Songbird, I will definitely do them and see if it comes back/affects others. Thankfully nothing new so far. 

    All the best, 

    Rachel
  • B3B3 Posts: 27,505
    edited June 2020
    Have a look at sooty mould. @Rachel-9696
    https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?PID=770
    In London. Keen but lazy.
  • Rachel-9696Rachel-9696 Posts: 8
    B3 said:
    Have a look at sooty mould. @Rachel-9696
    https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?PID=770
    Thank you B3! That does look quite a lot like it. And explains that ants are normally present. Will have a go at how it says to go about helping solve the issue. 

    All the best, 

    Rachel
  • Andrewpotter353Andrewpotter353 Posts: 1
    Hi

    Did the sunflowers flower OK in the end?

    I have drilled a PYO sunflowers field with a mixture of autum beauty sunflowers and some of the plants were starting to have black circles on them, very similar to the picture above

    Thanks 
  • Rachel-9696Rachel-9696 Posts: 8
    Andrewpotter353 said:
    Hi

    Did the sunflowers flower OK in the end?

    I have drilled a PYO sunflowers field with a mixture of autum beauty sunflowers and some of the plants were starting to have black circles on them, very similar to the picture above

    Thanks 
    Hello,

    Thankfully these black spots didn’t cause any damage whatsoever. As the planet grew it seemed to grow out the leaves with the black spots and never came back again. They grew nice and tall (see below). Hope yours will do the same! Cheers, 

    Rachel

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