Re: HYB: CULT: antibiotics & selecting seedling


>I'm not a hybridizer, but if I were, I would certainly hope I would not 
>indulge in extreme lifesaving measures to preserve a rot-prone seedling, 
>no matter how pretty its face.  Of course, if I were a hybridizer, my 
>primary objective would be to create attractive irises that are tough 
>enough to survive and perform in spite of all the worst my growing 
>conditions can dish out.  Treating seedlings for rot would seem 
>contradictory to that goal.

>Laurie


>-----------------
>laurief@paulbunyan.net
>http://www.geocities.com/lfandjg/
>USDA zone 3b, AHS zone 4 - northern MN
>clay soil


No bearded iris is rot-proof.  Every bearded iris is rot-prone to a certain extent.  You can take one of your trouble-free iris, plant it in a low spot,
water it overhead with sprinklers at mid-afternoon in July, give it excess
nitrogen fertilizer, and it will rot. Or, Mother Nature can rain herself silly
like she did this year with Isidore and Lili, and irises will rot.

Some irises are easier to rot than others even without the unusual conditions
mentioned above.  Normal conditions in an area may induce rot - like the
humid, rainy summers where I garden.  I don't have to try for rot!  It happens.
It goes with the territory.  I will do my best to stop it. If it is 'crown
rot,' it is contagious, and if something is not done about it, the entire iris
garden could perish.

If I had repeated rot on that Dykes' Medal seedling (mentioned earlier) season after season, I would know it is rot-prone and would never inroduce it. One 
season or two is not enough to tell.

Many times a hybridizer doesn't know an iris is rot-prone until it is
introduced and distributed. It can be free of rot in one climate, yet be a notorious rotter in others.  

Bernice Miller and Jimmy Burch garden(ed) in an area like mine.  I have never
lost one of their cultivars to rot.  My introductions bred in MS have
refrained from rotting at home.  There are several of my later ones I've
never had any rot in - even with a considerable amount of stock planted
too close together.

I remember the tour gardens in Oregon in '94.  There was rot in
Oregon introductions and Oregon seedlings.  There was evidence of treatment, too.  Some of these seedlings that were rotting in Oregon convention 
gardens may have bloomed in your garden this past spring! 

Walter Moores
Enid Lake, MS USA 7/8 (Hugging a bag of terraclor).



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