Re: CULT: first casualty
- To:
- Subject: Re: [iris-talk] CULT: first casualty
- From: J* a* C* W*
- Date: Mon, 6 Mar 2000 19:39:58 -0700
From: "Jeff and Carolyn Walters" <jcwalters@bridgernet.com>
dkramb@badbear.com writes:
<< While doing spring cleanup in the gardens today, I found the first iris
casualty of the year. >>
The loss of any treasured denizen of the garden is a cause for distress,
but now that a semblance of spring has arrived here and the soil has dried
out enough for me to get out into the garden and view the situation at
close hand, I find that the iris beds bear some resemblance to the
vegetable equivalent of the aftermath of Pickett's charge. The cause of all
the slaughter is not canister shot and minie balls, but Botrytis, which has
flourished to an unparalleled extent in the relatively mild weather we have
endured this winter. Temperatures were 10 degrees or more above average for
January and February, which brought them into the range at which Botrytis
is capable of active growth and meant that precipitation fell either as
rain or snow that melted with the repeated thawing periods to provide the
ample moisture at soil level needed to sustain that growth. The damage has
been both more extensive and intensive than I have ever experienced before
(and Botrytis here is the bane of the iris grower in the same sense that
borers and soft rot are where they prevail). I have found damage in nearly
30 clumps so far, including medians, which have not usually been affected
in the past, and the spread of the rot within the infected clumps is much
worse than usual since the fungus has been active for such a long time
(usually Botrytis is only active for a couple of weeks during the "big
thaw" at the end of winter). I was aware that I had an active Botrytis
problem earlier in the winter, and sprayed affected clumps that I could
reach with fungicide, but that does not seem to have been completely
effective in suppressing the futher growth of the fungus where it was
applied.
The good news is that the dwarf bulbous irises (reticulata, danfordiae, and
hybrid cultivars) sprang into bloom over the weekend, nearly a week earlier
than they ever have before, so the iris parade is under weigh, even in the
Zone 4/5 borderlands (admittedly after the equivalent of a Zone 7 winter)
at an elevation of 4800 feet!
Jeff Walters in northern Utah (USDA Zone 4/5, Sunset Zone 2)
jcwalters@bridgernet.com
Where we are currently experiencing the attenuated effects of the storm
Dennis Bishop and Mike Sutton have already mentioned
