No mint again

[Cetti]

Last year I bought a couple of new plants, put them in the garden in a large pot and waited .... To begin with the plants were full of bright green healthy leaves, but now it's exactly the same as it is every single year....brown stalks, and what little mint is left is full of holes with rusty brown marks round the edges. Please tell me - what am I doing wrong?

[Robinia]

Hi Cetti - I know what you mean, it's hard to keep a lush green plant without it developing rust. You need a very large tub for each plant - I've found partial shade is best. Some varieties do better than others, black peppermint is good but a little strong & is used in teas a lot, pineapple mint is a lovely variegated one but an acquired taste, and Bowles (the hairy one) but it often gets mildew instead of rust....you can't win!
Keep picking it to encourage new growth, feed once a month, pinch off any leaves showing rust spots & the flowers to try & keep them as strong as possible.
Oh, & take cuttings, they root in water, so as to keep a succession of plants.

Or buy a jar of mint sauce! :o)

[Clanad]

We have mint that comes back each year and does quite well. One major difference is that it is not potted but growing in a corner of the garden. Check this site:
http://plant-disease.ippc.orst.edu/disease.cfm ?RecordID=832.00000 .
Some of the advice is for commercial growers, such as the flaming technique, however, similar fungal infestations in our roses (Black Spot) is controlled by treating the soil around each plant with a sulfur compound called Dormant Oil (smells vile, don't get any on your shoes!). This is done quite early in the spring before grwoth begins on the roses. The fungal spores for both your problem and the black spot winter over and begin its cycle when the weather warms...

Best of luck!

[thugulike]

It's said that mint only grows where the woman is the boss of the house......

[WendyS]

I find my mint plants are more vulnerable to rust when the soil gets exhausted which it easily does if you grow mint in the same patch or same pot year after year. This year I put a really good dollop of old manure on my mint patch and the added nutrient to the soil has kept the plants largely unaffected by this disease. If you're growing it in a pot, try scraping out some of the compost and replacing it every year with some composted stable manure. You can buy this in large plastic bags from good garden centres.

[Cetti]

Thank you for your helpful replies and please forgive the late posting. AB has prevented my response for some reason.

Robinia, the poor plants are in small pots as well as direct sun most of the day, so struggling to survive against the odds. Your varieties sound lovely - I did once have the pineapple but guess what happened to that...so all I have now is spearmint. First thing tomorrow if I can find enough healthy bits I will attempt to take cuttings. Never tried before but will have a go. Failing that - mint jelly with the new pots...might be tasty!

[Cetti]

Clanad, yes, mine comes back every year, but unlike yours mine dies. I think perhaps I will try planting some in a shady part of the garden and unpotted as you suggest. It must be worth a try - also using a fungicide spray or a soil cleanser (if there is such a thing) as our garden is so protected it's almost sub � tropical and that could be the probably why mould and rust are so virulent.

WendyS, my soil must be past exhaustion as I understood mint was happiest in poor soil. So that patch year after year has never had any kind of fertilizer. No wonder I�m disappointed every single year. So next year manure will be top of my shopping list as the odd sprinkle of Vitax doesn�t seem to have done much good.