Re: Cult: Elongated Rhizomes

--- In iris-talk@y..., Bill Shear <wshear@e...> wrote:
> 
"A lot about iris growth can be understood if we remember that the 
rhizome is a stem, and behaves accordingly!"

In our farming operations we noticed that the Rome apple variety had 
a tendency for long stretches of stem along which the dormant buds in 
leaf nodes would all fail to develop.  The condition was found to be 
indicative of ZINC deficiency in our high-calcium Idaho soil.  Since 
several (among them Walter Moores) have mentioned "poor soil"--
depleted of nutrients by the descriptions given--as one of the 
conditions under which this happens in bearded iris, I have a 
suspicion that nutrients, especially the micronutrients, may be 
involved.

Since in Rome apples (and presumably any apple for that matter) zinc 
seems to play a role in the "breaking" (i.e., breaking of dormancy) 
in the leaf-node buds, perhaps this same chemical and hormonal 
sequence may also be true in other plants, iris among them.

Drawing analogy between orchard apples and garden irises may seem far 
fetched, but it would seem reasonable to assume the basic processes 
of cellular physiology are common to all vascular plants.  I know 
from my own experience that apples thrive where irises thrive, and 
each fail to thrive where the other does not.  Their nutritional 
requirements appear to have a high degree of similarity.

Perhaps in gardens or commercial operations where bloom-out and blind 
rhizomes (no increase) is troubling, one might try adding some zinc, 
perhaps a chelated zinc, as a trial treatment.  Results would not 
show quickly, so some time, perhaps more than a year, would be needed 
to affirm a connection.

Neil Mogensen  western NC



 

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