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 Post subject: Moneywort dying
PostPosted: Wed Sep 06, 2017 1:28 pm 
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Joined: Sat Aug 30, 2003 2:22 pm
Posts: 49
Location: Flower Mound
I have several flower beds with moneywort as the ground cover. Recently, the moneywort started turning brown like it has been burned and now it is dying and is spreading to all the moneywort in the bed. What is this and what can I do?


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 Post subject: Re: Moneywort dying
PostPosted: Thu Sep 07, 2017 8:20 am 
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Joined: Wed Jul 02, 2003 8:09 pm
Posts: 1917
Location: Fort Worth,TEXAS
Here is the plant in the Dirt Doctor Library: https://www.dirtdoctor.com/garden/Moneywort_vq12524.htm

Photos help, though they're not always easy to post in these forums, they have to be very small file size to upload properly.

This sounds like an excellent question to ask Howard on his Sunday call-in program, and would probably help people with other plants suffering similarly in this really odd weather year. Take a close look and if you see any signs of things like powdery mildew or odd discoloration, make note and take photos if you can. Those can be sent to Howard at info@dirtdoctor.com ahead of the call so he can see what you're asking about.

I haven't grown this plant to have personal familiarity with it, but the link above and another I found from the University of Arkansas says it responds to extra water by growing faster. I'm going to offer an educated guess and suggest that the extra water this year is part of the culprit, and you may have some kind of a fungal disease spreading through the beds from wherever it got started in the wettest part of the yard.

If you look at various fungal disease entries in the Library (same place I found the Moneywort link) you'll see a common denominator in treatment - cornmeal. Other things that repel or kill the fungal activity are hydrogen peroxide (the 3% variety you get in the grocery store), potassium bicarbonate, and garlic. If you have several beds that are effected, you might want to try treating each one differently and see what responds best before doing that effective treatment in the other beds. You could either sprinkle cornmeal or spray a tea from soaking cornmeal in water (poke around the library for recipes). You could directly spray on hydrogen peroxide. You might want to sprinkle a light addition of a good compost into all of those beds to help stimulate the healthier biological activity.

Any of the organic treatments you try will benefit the soil, so even if you have to replant these beds the soil will be in better shape when you do so.

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 Post subject: Re: Moneywort dying
PostPosted: Thu Sep 07, 2017 8:50 am 
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Joined: Sat Aug 30, 2003 2:22 pm
Posts: 49
Location: Flower Mound
Thank you for the information. I think it is probably a fungus of some sort. I have been totally organic since we built this house 22 years ago, but the soil, or what they laughingly call soil, has always been terrible. We had added compost to these beds when we built them, but that's been a while ago. I'll check out the tips you suggested.


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