Re: Commercial growing of iris - DON'T DO IT!!!

In a message dated 97-01-21 06:02:04 EST, you write:

Thank you Graham!  That is exactly what I wanted to know.  Having grown
tobacco several years a while ago, I am familiar with monoculture 'problems'
re disease and pest control and the need for mechanical planting and
cultivating.

I used to have a plant setter for tobacco plants - can't quite visualize what
a mechanical planter for iris rhizomes would  be like.  The mechanical
planter I had was called a finger setter because it had rubber 'fingers' that
would close on the plant which was manually placed by one very speedy or two
more normal klutzes riding on seats on this gadget getting intoxicated on
exhaust fumes from the tractor (why one should ALWAYS have a tractor with a
vertical exhaust!!).  We also thought it might be called a finger setter
because of risks to getting fingers set in the ground along with the plants.
 It worked remarkably well in my very gravelly rocky ground, though it did
jam up with 4 - 8 inch rocks fairly often.  It had a water tank to inject a
drink with each plant and a row opener and press wheels.  Is your planter
similar?

Also, I am curious what kind of tractor drawn gadget digs the rhizomes and
how you keep them from getting mixed as they are dug?

No, I don't REALLY want to do this - but I do have the land (tho not the
scale you are talking about), and I do have a nice big underutilized
tractor....it's an entertaining winter fantasy...

What kind of plant density do you have - plants per hectare or acre?

Linda Mann lmann76543@aol.com east Tennessee USA
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