Hi all...I hope someone can give me an answer. I can't find any information on black slime attacking Oriental poppies. That is the exact extent of my issue. Late in the season (July) after most of the flowers had bloomed, a black slime started to appear on some of the latecomers. A few days ago another poppy became infected but this slime started out as an amber-reddish shiny blob...looks like it's blackening. Only the Oriental poppies are affected- no other nearby perennial. The soil is less than average in quality and I don't use any chemicals or fertilizers. The climate is hot, dry, windy for most part. Any words of wisdom would be appreciated. I will try to post a picture tomorrow but it's pretty much as described.
Thanks for the idea woodschmoe but that doesn't appear to be the problem (fungal blight). Symptoms are wrong, climate/conditions are just the opposite of typical mold/fungus conditions.
This is not sap. The first image shows how the flower became coated with black slimy stuff. It happened to a few others- the pods became infected after flowering. About a month later I saw a yellow-ish blob slowly turning to black on another flower...you can see some blackish substance on the visible petals as well. The second picture was taken yesterday. I wouldn't say any of the poppies suffered injury either. Edit: the yellowish blob was that colour for a few days before becoming black...
The black slime does look like sap - it bleeds white, then turns yellow and later black as it dries. But something is causing the sap bleeding, and that's the problem with your plant (i.e., the black slime is a symptom, not a cause). Unfortunately, I don't know what the cause is.
Thanks Michael...I thought at first it was sap because they are known for it...but I never saw it bleed white. Only one had the yellowish blob as well. FWIW I have been growing Papaver rhoeas and Papaver somniferum for years under the same conditions and nothing triggered them to bleed. Do you know of any links where I can get more info?
