I've seen not foliage diseases but bug action earlier than usual. My plants are healthy and growing, deep green, with the earliest varieties starting to blossom, all slightly ahead of schedule for my zone. But the lowermost leaves of many plants are riddled with little holes in a way that I usually don't see till the plants are much bigger. Or don't see at all because yellowing of foliage at the bottom has happened first.
In my situation, I've never found the need for Daconil or pre-emptive pruning---I just remove any branch that starts to look pretty bad, and the rest of the plant carries on merrily.
So that's what I've been doing---pinching off branches that are badly chewed. There's enough plant left in all cases so far that I am not worried for the overall plant's health, but I have definitely never pinched off branches at such an early stage before.
I, too, suspect the mild winter and early spring are the reason---the bugs presumably got an early start, even earlier than the plants.
Fortunately, the weather's been really good lately---sunny most days, just enough rain, pretty warm without scorching. So I'm hopeful that my usual pest- and disease-fighting strategy of "have healthy enough plants to stand some pest and disease damage" will be successful this year again nonetheless.
But I bet I'll see foliar disease early too, this year. I hadn't thought of that---thanks for the head's up!
Z
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