Re: disinfecting beardless iris

 

Hi All,


As an organic gardener, no chemicals are used here, besides I am much too lazy (and scared) to wast time on handling toxic chemicals. 

About 10 years ago, a devastating infection of Phytophthora nearly wiped out all 40 chromosome Sino- sibiricas and some  other beardless iris, I remembered an article read in an AIS Iris Bulletin (probably 1999). Bearded iris soaked in water with aspirin added, could  prevent Erwinia. Just 1 uncoated 325 mg tablet of aspirin to 1 gallon of water would be sufficient. Since I was stuck with 5 bottles of uncoated , 325 mg aspirin, instead of the coated 81 mg for my husband, I decided to try the aspirin treatment. From then on, every beardless Iris that was divided  for replanting or shipping, was soaked in that solution for at least an hour, usually over night. I does not cure Phytophthora but it does prevent it. At least I have not seen any more infected iris since. When reports of the HVX (Hosta Virus X) became the big scare in 2004, changing my ways of handling Hostas and being careful to sterilize tools and container before dividing plants, it made sense to use aspirin here too.I have been using aspirin  when dividing and washing daylilies and peonies as well, ever since.Too strong a solution could probably kill plants. Please don't take my word for it, it may be just in my mind. But I do hope some scientist will do research on aspirin.  If it is good for people, why not for plants. LOL

We don't have the borer here in Switzerland, but it is just possible, that the aspirin solution could destroy the eggs  after an  over night soaking.

Liselotte

On Aug 24, 2011, at 7:55 PM, Rodney Barton wrote:

 

Check out:  http://www.physan.com/ 

It's looks like a toss up to me. Bleach doesn't last long because of the stability and the Physan is supposed to be biodegradable. (If it kills everything what's degrading it?) Neither would likely come out the pipe of your local water treatment plant. The Physan might have an advantage if the diluted solutions are stable in that you could use less over time. I don't see any information about that. The Physan might also cause less damage to the plants, roots especially.
(Bleach is easy to over do.) Then again, it's one more thing to buy and most of us have bleach in the house already.

Rod

From: Ken Walkup <k*@cornell.edu>
To: "i*@yahoogroups.com" <i*@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Wednesday, August 24, 2011 5:54 AM
Subject: RE: [iris-species] disinfecting beardless iris

 
Ken,
                I’ve used bleach for all kinds of beardless irises, with a plain water rinse, and never had any adverse effects.  I have also used Physan (used to be Triple Action 20), which says it’s good against pretty much all pathogens, and breaks down within 48 hours.  I have wondered if there’s any advantage; possibly the Physan is safer to dispose of than the bleach.  Does anyone know the ins and outs of this?
                Ken Walkup
 
From: iris-species@yahoogroups.com [i*@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Kenneth Walker
Sent: Tuesday, August 23, 2011 7:22 PM
To: i*@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [iris-species] disinfecting beardless iris
 
 
If I share iris through the mail (for example the Aril Society sale), I want to insure that they are free of pests before I get them inspected. The dilute bleach approach seems common for bearded and arilbred iris;  I was wondering how applicable it is across the genus.

Ken

On 8/23/2011 2:03 PM, C*@aol.com wrote:
 
Why are you needing to do it?
 
AMW

 
 
-----Original Message-----
From: Kenneth Walker k*@astound.net
To: iris-species i*@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Tue, Aug 23, 2011 4:46 pm
Subject: [iris-species] disinfecting beardless iris
 
I'm looking for experience and advice disinfecting beardless iris.
Bearded iris rhizomes are quite tolerant of a 10% bleach solution; a
bath of 10 or 15 minutes followed by a thorough rinse does a nice job of
killing any pathogens on the surface. I've done this a few times with
beardless iris, but am wondering how safe this is in general. Are there
types of iris, perhaps ones with sensitive roots, where this will
seriously damage the plants.

Ken Walker
Concord
 




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