This especially means good plow down within the fields prior to planting. These rust diseases are generally so rare that little importance is placed on them and even less attention and research has been given them. While the roses look great because of the recent rainy weather, the rust diseases are thriving on many different kinds of plants as noted above. Historically, the rusts have been some of our most destructive diseases of food crops, causing famines and ruining economies, sometimes of whole countries. While the rusts are most notorious on grain crops, they also attack a wide range of vegetables, ornamentals, and trees.
Rust fungi infect mostly the leaves and stems of plants but sometimes attack flowers.
The infections appear as many rusty, reddish-orange, yellow, pustules breaking through the epidermis of host plants. Rub the pustules with your finger and the rusty color comes off. Life cycles of rusts can be very complex with different fungal stages and alternate hosts. Unlike red rust and lettuce rust, not all rusts have two hosts. The stage most commonly seen is reddish-orange uredial stage in the summer during active crop growth.