Pacific Coast Iris etc.

Yesterday I finished the convention book and its ready for the printer so I
have time to be able to share some knowledge on the questions of PCIs that
are being asked.

My wife an I have a commercial garden on the north coast of California (4
hours north of San Francisco ) where PCIs are native and grow like weeds.
Last fall we took over the business of Colin Rigby's Portable acres.(poor
health forced retirement) It was quite an experience digging and moving the
plants from Washington state. Overall we planted over 4,000 plants of 160
varieties plus the species Colin offered. Most of these will be offered for
sale this year.

Colin's customers seemed to have very high success rate as the shipment of
plants was not rushed and they were shipped with lots of new roots. We will
continue this practice. From letters we have received from around the
country I am amazed at how many different areas these are grown. Aranasas?

Basically they do need good drainage, partial sun in hot areas,(we grow in
full sun here) early spring feeding and NEVER OVERHEAD WATER WHEN THE SUN
IS ON THE PLANTS. This will help to prevent crown rot.

Have any of you used Maxi-Crop (100% seaweed) on your iris. Last year I
heard about using it at 6x the normal dosage as a foilar spray on peaches
to stop peach leaf curl after the fact. It worked! Here we always get leaf
spot so spraying is an essential part of growing. This year I have used
only max-icrop
and it seems to work. My iris are up 6-12" and normally with our crazy
rains and then heat I would be covered already. Our main fields have none.
A test area where it did show up was sprayed afer the fact and it stopped
it from spreading and turned the existin spots into small holes. Bill
Maryott was up here recently and was so excited with th results he took
some home to try. Who knows if this is just a quirk or the real thing. Only
time and testing will tell.

Jay Hudson-Fort Bragg, CA USA
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