CULT: the face of death (was rhizomes)
- To: Multiple recipients of list <i*@rt66.com>
- Subject: CULT: the face of death (was rhizomes)
- From: s*@aristotle.net (J. Michael, Celia or Ben Storey)
- Date: Sun, 23 Mar 1997 13:41:31 -0700 (MST)
Dana asks
>If you plant a rhizome in the fall and come back in the spring what will
>the rhizome look like if:
>1. The darn thing died. <snip>
>2. It was freeze killed. <snip>
>3. Rot got it. Any of various different types.
At last, a subject upon which I am well-versed: deadness. As our profound
pal Shelley intoned:
"Death is here
Death is there
Death is busy everywhere." So moving, so sad. ;->
1. If the darn thing died, you will be able to lift that rhizome right out
of the ground, assuming it hasn't already blown away like a cicada's shell.
Its roots will not clutch the soil, and when you turn the withered thing
over to look at those roots, there won't really be any or they'll break
right off. There will be no fans to speak of, or only a few leathery wisps.
The rhizome will appear sere and shriveled, dessicated or even hollow,
because with the departure of life, water leaves the rhizome cells and they
deflate. There will be *no* hint of green and no increases.
The rhizome will look like the worn-out mother rhizomes you may find in the
middle of an established clump, dry husks that lift gently away.
If that rhizome still has some heft and you know it's been dehydrated,
don't toss it yet. Maybe it's just asleep. Replant, water more frequently
and let it try to live for a month. If there's life there, you'll soon
know.
2. In your part of the world, freeze kills bloomstalks more often than the
fan or the iris itself. Foliage will regrow. Frozen foliage looks mushy or
may have mushy spots or brown tips, and bloomstalks collapse because the
water that froze inside the cells expanded, bursting the cellular walls.
3. Soft rot, or Erwinia does not appear on the fans; you find it *in* the
rhizome. Often the rhizome looks fine, but when you touch it your finger
breaks through the outer tissues. Inside is yellowish, putrid gunk (the
Nightmare on Eclair Street.) It may splatter. Once you see Erwinia
splatter, you don't forget it. In my garden a rhizome will recover even if
there is only a half-inch of sound tissue left, so long as that tissue has
a root to feed it.
There are dry rots, but I haven't met them.
celia
storey@aristotle.net USDA Zone 7b AIS Region 22
Little Rock, Arkansas
