CULT: Leaf Removal & Soft Rot

In a message dated 2/19/2003 1:29:07 PM Central Standard Time, 
lmann@volfirst.net writes:


> I dunno Bill - since Erwinia is only able to grow under anaerobic
> condtions, which are not at all normal/widespread in well-drained garden
> soil <except when saturated with water>, it seems more likely that
> presence/absence of pockets of anaerobic conditions would have an
> over-riding effect on Erwinia populations, given the wide range of pH
> under which Erwinia will grow.
> 

Here I suppose you confuse the concept of grow and increase with exist and 
survive. Like irises, Erwinia is capable of survival under a remarkably 
varied set of parameters. Like irises, Erwinia does not increase well under 
some of those parameters. Too, its easy to allow our thought processes to 
lapse into is/isn't, black/white, dead/alive etc. Such thought processes 
might work if we were addressing a simplistic problem having only one 
variable. The life cycle of Erwinia is not such a simplistic problem. There 
are a number of interdependent and/or codependent variables present, pH being 
only one of several identifiable variables.

Microbe life, like all other life, is a function of time. As microbes go 
Erwinia c.c. is rather short lived. Still it has survived on stored celery 
seed for up to two years. I do not know the mechanics of the life processes 
by which it accomplishes this feat. As to how it might exist on live plant 
tissue, I do not know this either. However, logic suggests it could do so 
best if located in the tissue lenticels of the rhizome.


Smiles,
Bill Burleson 7a/b
Old South Iris Society

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