Re: Cult: Bloomouts
- Subject: Re: Cult: Bloomouts
- From: B* S*
- Date: Wed, 7 Mar 2001 10:44:11 -0500
>Mark:
>Thanks for the information. Are you saying once an iris fan has a bud
>and blooms, that's it... it DIES?..as in DEAD??. It won't come back
>the next year with another bloom, or even little rhizomes off the
>side for more bloom? Is there anything that can be done for it??
>(besides tossing it, I guess)
There are a number of things you can try for a rhizome which blooms
without increase. I have had success simply by replanting the
rhizome, but about 3-4" deep. Dormant buds respond to darkness by
becoming active, and sprouts reach the surface in anywhere from 2 to
8 weeks. Others have reported that cutting the rhizome in half
crossways and discarding the outer (bloomed) half stimulates lateral
buds along the rhizome to produce increase.
One kind of bloomout is simply a failure to increase after the main
bud blooms. We have to remember that the rhizome is a stem, not a
root. As such, there are dormant buds (normally) in each leaf axil
(wherever a leaf emerges). When I talk of buds here, I don't mean
individual flower buds, but stem buds that will grow into new branch
rhizomes. These buds are kept dormant by hormones from the main
growing tip. When the flow of these hormones is diminished (as the
main tip gets ready to bloom) some of the buds closest to the
developing bloomstalk are released from inhibition and start to grow.
They, in turn, produce hormones that inhibit buds further down, as
well as their own side buds. When you cut or nick a rhizome, you may
be interrupting the flow of hormones from elsewhere in the plant and
thus initiate growth in side buds. Plants that tend to bloom out by
flowering without increase might be big hormone producers so that
even after flowering, the lateral buds stay inhibited. Differences
in the ability to increase may have something to do with the genetics
of hormone production. Nicking or cutting or burying might overcome
this by either causing the hormones to disintegrate, or preventing
them reaching the buds. All very theoretical and not scientifically
tested!
Bloomout can also result when not only the main bud of the rhizome
flowers, but all of the increases as well. The production of
multiple stalks from the same rhizome seems to be something that is
appearing more and more in new varieties, and some breeders may be
encouraging it. Under less than optimal conditions, this could lead
to all the buds blooming and nothing left for the following year. I
suspect that this would be genetically independent of the inhibitory
hormone story outlined above. This would be perhaps harder to deal
with, but I think the burying technique may still work.
Interesting to discuss the possible relationships between these two
types of bloomout, rate of increase, etc., rebloom and ever-blooming
tendencies.
--
Bill Shear
Department of Biology
Hampden-Sydney College
Hampden-Sydney VA 23943
(804)223-6172
FAX (804)223-6374
email<wshear@email.hsc.edu>
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