Re: CULT: shaved rhizomes?

Linda Mann wrote:
> 
> Walter A. Moores wrote:
> >      No rocks are used here.  Get your bed or planting area all muddied up
> > and stick the shaved rhizome into the mud.  Leave the top half exposed.
> > When the mud dries, it will anchor your plant. Walter in muddy Missippi.
> 
> Hmm.  My organic, gravelly loam doesn't dry to concrete (way too
> friable) and in my experience, wet gravel doesn't anchor things very
> well, unless it completely buries the rhizome.  Guess I will just have
> to experiment.  T
> 
> Linda Mann lmann@icx.net east Tennessee USA

Linda -- I recently constructed two new beds for receiving this year's
iris acquisitions. For the first time, I acquired some used mushroom
soil (components: peat moss, cow manure, topsoil -- don't ask me the
percentages) and put it on the former lawn (turf removed) to create
slightly raised beds (about 1" of mushroom soil worked in, instead of
the recommended 2-3"). I had solarized the beds for at least three weeks
before adding the mushroom soil, and the resulting planting medium was
very dry granular (i.e., I worried about the neigbors complaining about
the drifting dust clouds as I tilled). However, after planting, I
sprinkled the beds for about 4 hours until they were saturated. I had
several "leaners" among the new irises (fans growing at about 45 degrees
from the rhizome instead of straight up). Stupidly, I planted these as
they were, leaning fans facing toward the sun. Today I thought, "Why not
reverse these critters, so their fans face AWAY from the sun?"), the
theory being that they will straighten up as they pull toward the light.
I carefully dug a ball of earth around each and re-oriented it 180
degrees. The interesting discovery, in the process of this, was that the
very dry granular planting medium had turned into damn-near glue. These
rhizomes are standing up erect without any need of a brick-on-the-back
or any other assistance. So, Walter with his Mississippi mud and anyone
else who can create a dense, rich soil to receive the rhizomes may have
the key to successfully planting shallow-or-no-rooted rhizomes. (Whew!)

Griff Crump, along the tidal Potomac near Mount Vernon, VA  
jgcrump@erols.com
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