Not only pests like the dreaded water lily leaf beetle, but also diseases can harm water lilies, weakening them and encouraging them to die.

Most often, water lilies are attacked by fungal diseases

Fungal diseases have an easy time

In general, water lilies - especially those in the pond - are considered sensitive to fungal pathogens. The reason is that their location preference provides an ideal breeding ground for fungi. Water lilies grow in moist to wet substrates. Fungi love such an environment and can spread quickly and unhindered in it.

Identify leaf spot disease

All too often it is leaf spot diseases that afflict water lilies. There are two pathogens that occur more frequently and make it difficult for the water lilies to survive. You can recognize an infestation by:

  • spot-like discoloration of the leaves
  • Dots get darker and darker
  • then there are holes
  • then the leaves die off

If the plant is not treated, it will soon die. Infected parts should be removed and disposed of as soon as possible. As prevention, it is important to minimize conducive factors. These include locations that are too shady and water that is too cold.

Blight - Rhizome has been attacked

Another dangerous disease is late blight. Here the rhizome is attacked first. As a rule, this disease appears at the earliest in the second year of life of the water lily. Help is often not in sight. It is better to remove the diseased plant from the pond before the fungal spores spread to other water lilies or other plants in the pond.

You can recognize blight on the water lily by the fact that the rhizome has turned brown to black. It stinks and the smell is reminiscent of rot. In addition, the rhizome is soft. Furthermore, the leaves are unusually colored. First, their color changes from dark green to light green. Eventually they only describe a yellow color and are partly rolled up.

Stem Rot - Stems rot

A third disease that can occur is stem rot. Here in brief:

  • can be behind a flower drop
  • Stems have rotted
  • Leaves turn light green to yellow
  • Initial stage: cut away affected parts and dust interfaces with ash
  • Advanced stage: eliminate diseased plant

tips

Before deciding on a specific water lily species and variety, it's a good idea to find out about their disease resistance!

Category:

Vegetable garden