Snapdragon Rust - Mistakes I made and what I learned

Snapdragons are a pretty big staple for most flower farmers and florists alike. These long elegant stems offer height, depth and texture to flower arrangements and bouquets. 
How could you not fall in love with them? Their little blooms resembling tiny dragons, the way you can open and close their tiny mouths. There's little to dislike about these whimsical flowers. 

I myself fell in love with the idea of growing snap dragons last spring. I did my research on which groups to grow, what colours I loved best, and what were most popular amongst customers and growers alike. I started the tiny little seeds, nurtured them from seed, to seedling. Hardened them off appropriately when the time came, and finally transplanted them into their raised garden bed. 

Things were looking exceptionally well. I pinched the seedlings at the right time, watered vigorously and patiently waited for my first blooms. And bloom they did. They came fast and furious. It seemed all at once, I had hundreds of snapdragons ready to harvest. I couldn't keep up with them. Many were left to fully bloom and die without ever being cut. Problem number one. 

An abundant, healthy snapdragon bed, filled with beautiful blooms ready to harvest. 

I used a ton in bouquets. I sold straight bunches. It was honestly snapdragon heaven. I couldn't get enough of them. I had decided to plant them close together to encourage long strong stems that could be used in dramatic arrangements and bouquets. I thought, "Im a rebel. I don't follow the spacing rules". Problem number two.

As the season drove on, the days got hotter and the nights were cool and humid. Problem number three. A lot of the snaps I didn't harvest began to degrade and die off. A smart person would have simply taken the time to cut down the dead flowers and tend to the bed properly. Unfortunately for me, I had to learn a big lesson a very hard way. 

It started out modestly. Small yellow discolourations on the leaves of my snap dragons. At first I just thought it was because some of the flowers and stems were spent. I still had a ton of snaps that hadn't bloomed yet. I had done another huge succession and I was waiting for the new colours I hadn't seen yet to bloom. 

The problem gradually got worse as the yellowing of the leaves moved to the stems, and from then on to the new flowers as well. The yellowing quickly turned to brown. Brown spots that you could rub off on your fingers. What was it? It was Snapdragon rust. 

What is Snapdragon Rust?

Snapdragon rust, or Antirrhinum rust is a fungal infection that affects snapdragons, but does not spread to other types of flowers. It starts out as small yellow spots on the leaves and foliage of the snapdragon, and evolves into brown pustules that eventually take over the entire plant. There is no treatment to effectively get rid of the rust once its affected your plants. Your only successful course of action is to fully remove all infected plants. Antirrhinum rust is spread by wind, water and insects making it extremely easy for your entire crop of snapdragons to be infected quite quickly. 

For me, I didn't realize what was happening to my snapdragons until it was too late. The Antirrhinum rust had infected my entire bed of snapdragons. Rendering the large majority of them unusable.

There are many factors as to why snapdragon rust occurs and a few things you can to to mitigate the fungus from occurring. I made a few big errors when planting my snapdragons. 

The beginning of a massive Puccinia Antirrhinum outbreak. Brown pustules all along the leaves and stems of my snapdragons. 

Proper Spacing- It's not just a loose suggestion. 

There is a reason that the little seed packages have spacing guides on them. I for one have never been one to follow these suggestions. Call it greed I suppose,  but I want to cram as many stems as I can into a bed, to maximize space and yield. However, this is counter productive in most, if not all flower growing procedures. 

Snapdragons need space for airflow. There are many risk factors when you plant your snapdragons too close together. 

First, good air circulation is extremely important for preventing fungal diseases. This is the case for all flowers. Dahlias need air to prevent powdery mildew, roses can be susceptible to downy mildew, and of course, Snapdragons get rust. Proper spacing gives the plants room to comfortably grow without being crammed together and creating a perfect environment for fungal diseases. 

Sufficient space also fosters strong and healthy growth cycles. Plants that are properly spaced out get the adequate amount of sunlight and soil nutrients needed to grow strong roots and sturdy stems. 

Proper Watering Technique 

you would think that watering is watering. The rain comes from the sky any time it feels right, and dumps on plants regardless of their watering needs. However not all watering is the same, and frankly speaking, sprinklers don't adequately mimic rainfall. 
Snapdragon rust thrives in a moist and humid environment. The hot summer days, overhead watering and saturating the plants, followed by cooler night temperatures are a perfect storm for exactly what Antirrhinum needs to infect surrounding plants. 

As mentioned above, rust can be passed onto plants via water droplets, so a subsurface and drip irrigation can vastly reduce the chance for rust to spread. I read a study that said that plants must be wet for 6-8 hours to be infected, so by using a drip system for watering, your plants would never have the opportunity to be wet for that length of time. 

An entire bed of snapdragons absolutely decimated by Snapdragon Rust

Garden Hygiene 

Probably the most crucial step, and honestly the one that seems the most obvious is general garden hygiene and maintenance. This probably seems obvious, but if you're anything like me, you have a lot on your plate during the flower season, and sometimes your mind goes elsewhere (Thanks ADHD brain) But it is imperative that you keep your snapdragon beds clean, and tidy and consistently harvest your snaps as they bloom. Healthy plants are at less of a risk to be infected with Antirrhinum rust than dead and decaying plants, and once infected, it's a ripple effect. Don't waste your beautiful snapdragons by leaving them in the garden to bloom, and die off. Harvest them. Even if you don't have a use or buyer for them. Stick them in a vase and enjoy them yourself! Or even better, share them with a neighbour or your community. Flowers are meant to be enjoyed, and by keeping a close eye on your snapdragons and using vigorous garden hygiene you'll greatly extend your season and keep nasty rust spores away from your beautiful blooms. 

I hope you learned a little something from this article. Making mistakes is crucial to the learning process, but I'd also like to take my mistakes and tell you as a teachable moment, so that you may learn before you make the same ones!

Let me know in the comments what you think of this article. Did you learn something? Have you dealt with Antirrhinum rust in the past?