Re: CULT: survivors and hybridizers

My experience is that stress leads to or aggravates disease, and agree
that the late winter/early spring stress can really mess up bloom.  I've
found that a really hard freeze (less than 25oF) about 8 weeks before
normal bloom time will often knock out flower stalks before they even
get started, especially if that freeze follows a week or so of warm
weather.

In my soil type (gravel), exposure (hill blocking morning sun), and
location (low valley), those effects are amplified.  The damage may or
may not lead to rot, loss of bloom, decline.

But I've also seen healthy happy plants that make it thru the winter
stress fine, make it thru the first late spring/early summer dry spells
fine, then rot after a lot of rain.  My theory is that during warm dry
spells, they put out a lot of roots into soil interstices that were
saturated in our area through most of the winter and early spring and
become saturated again (anaerobic) with heavy rain, drowning some roots
etc.

So maybe both of these vulnerabilities are related to rapid growth
capacity?  Lush vulnerable growth ..?

One thing is known: plants (cultivars) have different genetic abilities
to switch resources from growth to repair/defense against disease.
Think tomatos & VFN resistant varieties.

<This has caused me to wonder if much of what is often ascribed to
summer issues and hereditary  weaknesses may have been initiated by
stressors early in the spring.  Neil Mogensen   z 7 western NC>

--
Linda Mann east Tennessee USA zone 7/8
East Tennessee Iris Society <http://www.korrnet.org/etis>
American Iris Society web site <http://www.irises.org>
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