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Since you failed to mention your location I looked at your post history and I think you're in The Staten Island area? It's still winter there. Your peonies should still be dormant.
If your peonies have not yet sprouted up, why would you be looking for fungicides for leaf blotch, when your peonies don't have leaves yet?
If you are going on past experience with these plants and expecting your peonies to develop leaf blotch when they do finally leaf out, then perhaps they have a history of this problem?
My best guess is the peonies, if they have developed this fungal/mold affliction before, are planted in a poor location. You might do better to move the peonies to such a place where the air circulation is better and where they get more sunlight to keep the leaves drier.
Fighting a blight caused by external conditions would recommend that the plant needs different conditions in order to be healthy. Fungicide is a poor fix for a problem that is environmentally caused. Your peonies are not happy where they are currently planted.
The right plant in the right place is the best recipe for healthy plants.
I have four peonies at the side wall of my house for myriad of years. After many years, they began to show signs of leaf burning, and I thought it was Fire Blight, which is predominant on the North East. Some people said to me that it was probably Leaf Blotch.
I began to scout on Google, and came across a disease caused by water logged in clay soil, which I have. The name being Phytophthora blight. One of the plants died, and three are still alive, but I see the symptoms emerging in early August. I water them about once per week.
Now, I have three peonies on the other side of the house, which also began to show the same symptoms.
And I have two in the front of the house with the same disease. However, I see that my perennial geranium next to the peonies also developed it. So, I do not know what to think anymore.
I do have raised beds because of the clay soil that holds water........but the plants still picked up the disease, so I am wondering whether it is Phytoiphthora blight in one side of the house, and Leaf Blotch on the other side......... or both.....
I'm still a bit perplexed as I'm sure the peonies are currently quite dormant. Also perplexed by a leafed out geranium in New York this time of year?
Wet heavy clay soil is an unhappy medium for most plants.
Phytopthora is terminal. You cannot save a plant with phytopthera wilt.
I did look look up peony leaf blotch and it is a different malady, Botrytis. Both afflictions are related to excess moisture, poor air circulation, wet leaves, soggy growing conditions.
A fungicide is not going to fix growing condition problems and disease susceptibility of certain kinds of plants.
If these plants die/survive poorly year after year, I'm afraid the best thing you can probably do is to get rid of them. They are clearly not healthy and not happy, there wouldn't be much point in continuing to try to grow them where they are. It just isn't working.
My advise is to remove the diseased plants - because these diseases are easily spread to other plants too - improve the soil, and grow something else. Seriously.
Have a look at the photos and descriptions in this link and get a better idea of what is plaguing your peonies. You can't solve the problem without a diagnosis because some peony fungal diseases are common and appear almost every year, but others, like phytopthera, are extremely destructive and impossible to cure because they live in the soil.
Once the phytopthera pathogen takes up residence in the soil, you can't replant many things in that area.
This link helps you out with that problem. But make sure phytopthera is the problem before you start pulling up peonies.
If your peonies are suffering from blotch or some other seasonal fungal disease, there are preventive measures you can take, early in the season. And after the blooms have faded, you can continue to treat the foliage so they don't look ratty until the end of summer. Here's an article on Peony Blotch:
I'm still a bit perplexed as I'm sure the peonies are currently quite dormant. Also perplexed by a leafed out geranium in New York this time of year?
Wet heavy clay soil is an unhappy medium for most plants.
Phytopthora is terminal. You cannot save a plant with phytopthera wilt.
I did look look up peony leaf blotch and it is a different malady, Botrytis. Both afflictions are related to excess moisture, poor air circulation, wet leaves, soggy growing conditions.
A fungicide is not going to fix growing condition problems and disease susceptibility of certain kinds of plants.
If these plants die/survive poorly year after year, I'm afraid the best thing you can probably do is to get rid of them. They are clearly not healthy and not happy, there wouldn't be much point in continuing to try to grow them where they are. It just isn't working.
My advise is to remove the diseased plants - because these diseases are easily spread to other plants too - improve the soil, and grow something else. Seriously.
No, the plants are dormant until the end of March......most likely I will get rid of them.........
Take a few cutting over to either the Brooklyn Botanical Garden or the Brooklyn Botanical Garden.
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