Management of Rose Rosette Disease

Rose rosette disease (RRD) has been responsible for the destruction of 10’s of thousands of roses in commercial and private landscapes throughout the Mid-South.  The only management strategy has been to destroy symptomatic plants and many of the plants were not destroyed until large rosettes developed in the infected bushes.  For four years we looked at pruning at first symptom detection of RRD, using a green barrier to impede movement of the vectors, preventative miticide sprays and rogueing at symptom detection.  Pruning out symptomatic foliage was ineffective for reducing RRD symptoms from emerging on other canes.  Green barriers (1.8-2.1 m plants of Miscanthus sinensis) reduced incidence of RRD in test plots by more than 50%.  Plants sprayed on 14 day spray intervals with Akari, Forbid, Kontos or Talstar did not develop symptoms of RRD whereas all plants sprayed with water (control) were symptomatic for RRD by the end of year three.  Monitoring roses daily for RRD symptoms and rogueing of plants at first detection of symptoms prevented plants less than 1 m away from becoming symptomatic for RRD.