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I have marigolds that were blooming beautifully in central Florida from about Jan - March. Now they are thinning out and getting small spots on the leaves. I don't have a picture for this post now. Does anyone know what this might be and how to treat it?
Without a picture it's hard to say for sure, but it could be some sort of fungal problem. Fungal problems could come from watering too much, or if you're watering in the evenings then the leaves take a really long time to dry off and that can encourage fungal growth. If that's the case I'd switch to morning watering. And sometimes there can be fungal spores in the soil, and if you are using overhead watering, the water can hit the soil and splash back up on the leaves carrying fungal spores with it, so you should try to be careful not to splash when you're watering.
What Ecrane said is correct, also some Marigolds do this with age, have you been dead heading the flowers, this helps keep the plants condition better for longer, if no dead heading is done, the plants want to make seeds and then die off, by dead heading, you are also allowing air to circulate through the foliage and helps to prevent some fungus that Ecrane mentioned getting a real hold, sometimes we forget to offer food to the plants that have flowered over a long time and they start to look old and diseased, so try all the watering advise given and also add a liquid feed maybe every week till they are way past their flowering season, good luck. WeeNel.
