Re: CULT: Recycling garden area

George

I don't know of any sure fire way to remove all rhizome completely.

There is no guarantee that Roundup will kill them all and simply rototilling them in means that you will have heaps more pieces to remove..
So perhaps you can dig them out and compost them, but even then you will need to fallow the land for at least a year to ensure that all the tiny bits left behind (and there will be some) to germinate so you can see them and remove them.
Alternatively if the area isn't too big, you can get it very wet, cover with plastic for a month or so and hope to rot them out.
No easy answer on this, I know we have to deal with it with old seedling beds.
We poison with Roundup ( does knock them back somewhat) and then dig most out with a potato harvester (neighbour is potato grower) and then plant a green crop to refresh the soil and check for escapee rhizomes.

Wouldn't recommend replanting irises in the same area for a year or more.

Colleen Modra
Adelaide Hills
South Australia

colleen@impressiveirises.com.au
www.impressiveirises.com.au


----- Original Message ----- From: "George Schubert" <gschubert@earthlink.net>
To: <iris@hort.net>
Sent: Wednesday, June 14, 2006 10:30 AM
Subject: [iris] CULT: Recycling garden area


I am going to hopefully finish dividing my clumps this summer, saving at least two rhizomes from each variety, but likely a few more from cultivars I would like to use as parents. Once I have saved the rhizomes I want and made sure they have gotten off to a successful transplant, I would like to recycle that garden space back into iris beds for new varieties and seedlings, maybe next year.

I could dig out all the rhozomes from a clump and compost/give away the excess, but that sounds like a lot of unneccessary work. Or I could Roundup the whole patch, then till, but don't want the chemical expense or the fretting about toxicity carryover in the soil. Or I could just mow and till. And till. And till, in what would seem like an endless process to keep the unnamed little buggers from popping up forever.

Any been there done thats?

Thanks,
George

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