Mint rust is a disease caused by the fungus Puccinia menthae. Mint rust infects several mint species as well as some related plants including marjoram and savory. Mint rust symptoms can be expected from spring until autumn.

You may see the following symptoms:

• Pale and distorted shoots in spring
• Dusty orange pustules on the stems and leaves. These may be followed by dusty yellow or black pustules
• Large areas of leaf tissue die and plants may lose leaves

The RHS believes that avoiding pests, diseases and weeds by good practice in cultivation methods, cultivar selection, garden hygiene and encouraging or introducing natural enemies, should be the first line of control. If chemical controls are used, they should be used only in a minimal and highly targeted manner.

Non-chemical control

Remove affected plants promptly before the black resting spores are formed and contaminate the soil. In the case of garden mint it is also necessary to remove infected rhizomes. In an infected bed, try to locate any uninfected stems and carefully dig these out and move to another location in an attempt to start a new, healthy colony.

Heat treatment is a method used by commercial nurseries, but could be adapted for the home gardener. Wash rhizomes thoroughly in early autumn and immerse in hot water at 44ºC (111ºF) (no higher) for 10 minutes, then cool in cold water and plant. An accurate thermometer is required, because 44ºC (111ºF) is very near the lethal temperature for the plant, and it may be more profitable to spend the money on some new plants.

Chemical control

No fungicides are available to gardeners to treat rust on mint used for food.

For ornamental species, the fungicides tebuconazole (Provanto Fungus Fighter Concentrate), tebuconazole with trifloxystrobin (Provanto Fungus Fighter Plus, Toprose Fungus Control & Protect), and triticonazole (Fungus Clear Ultra) may be used. They will be most effective at preventing new infections, but because they have systemic activity (are taken into the plant tissues) they may have some curative properties.

Inclusion of a fungicide product does not indicate a recommendation or endorsement by the RHS. It is a list of products currently available to the home gardener.

Download

Fungicides for gardeners (Adobe Acrobat pdf document outlining fungicides available to gardeners).

Links

Chemicals: using a sprayer
Chemicals: using safely and effectively
Chemicals: storing and disposing safely

The rust fungi are described as biotrophs; that is, they grow within the living tissues of the plant and extract nutrients from the cells without killing them. They are not able to survive in an active state on dead plant material, so must either alternate with a different, perennial host, or produce resting spores to pass the dormant season.

Puccinia menthae completes its entire life cycle on one plant host and produces resting spores to pass through winter.

In garden mint, the general consensus was that the fungus grows into the rhizomes, where it spends the winter, causing a systemic infection throughout the tissues of the plant.  However there is currently some debate as to whether this really is the case. It is known that resting spores present in the soil or contaminating the outside of the rhizomes can infect new shoots in spring.

The fungus has several spore stages, the first being the orange pustules that appear in spring or early summer, followed later by yellow spores and finally by black resting spores.