CULT: Transpiration and rot
- Subject: CULT: Transpiration and rot
- From: l*
- Date: Wed, 3 Jul 02 12:32:04 -0600
>I would expect a higher than normal incidence of rot in the TBI's where
>their
>ability to transpire moisture was suddenly interrupted by the grasshoppers
>feasting.
Now THIS is very, very interesting to me! Now you've got me wondering
about the rot my irises experience every spring. Up here in the great,
frigid north, my TBs often develop what I assume are minor rot infections
in early spring just as temps hover around and slightly above freezing.
As the soil thaws from frozen solid to cold and wet, rhizomes become
spongy but not mushy. Fans start growing. At this same time, the large
deer population is near starvation after our too-long winter and looking
for anything with even the slightest hint of green to eat. They keep my
iris fans trimmed to the ground for the first month until their natural
browse leafs out. I knew it wasn't helping the irises any to have all
their foliage munched during that period, but it hadn't occurred to me
that the lack of moisture transpiration potentially provided by the
consumed leaves was essential to removing excess, rot-inducing moisture
from the rhizomes at the time of year when the soil is at its dampest the
longest.
Not that there's anything practical to be done about the deer feasting
(at least not that I've come up with so far), but it's always
enlightening to have one more piece to fit into the iris survival puzzle.
Hey, Walter, where are those deeresistible irises???
Laurie
-----------------
laurief@paulbunyan.net
http://www.geocities.com/lfandjg/
zone 3b northern MN - clay soil
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