Re: crying, rot, and rebloom

In a message dated 96-08-16 12:15:20 EDT, you write:

>I heard the key word in your message, Linda...fertilizer.  I suspect it may
>be more of a source of your rot than you might think (ask my buddy Mike
>Lowe!) 

I know I can't convince you of it, but rot was just as bad without fertilizer
as with.  Perhaps even worse, because the plants were growing so poorly.
 Everybody was telling me 'too much fertility' so I used nothing but bonemeal
for 2 or 3 years and had hardly any bloom.  Finally it dawned on me that in
our high rainfall and with my gravel pile excuse for soil, all the nutrients
were leaching out.  So I started using 6-12-12 - a tad in February/March and
a bigger tad after bloom.  I still get some rot, but at least I get blooms.  

So what do you think, Mike?

The big factor in successfully growing iris around here seems to be
cultivation.  I see hardly any rot out in those tractor plowed rows, except
occasionally in little beat up bits of rhizome -gifts and swaps.  This is the
second year for some of them and they look pretty good - however, it has
rained fairly regularly, so they aren't getting all scorched and stressed
like they did last year.  Time will tell if regular deep plowing does the
trick.

I am REALLY looking forward to SOUTHLAND GRAPE!  Especially after those rave
review comments!  Time to go study its family tree.

Linda Mann lmann76543@aol.com east TN
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