Re: Re: CULT: soft rot
My experimenting this year convinces me that soft rot in irises is connected to fertilizer than to water. I grow three big beds of tall bearded irises, and try to keep clumps of my favorites in each, so if I lose on in one bed I'll have it in another. One of my beds gets flood irrigation. One day every two weeks it stands in 3 inches of hot water for 3 to 4 hours. I don't recommend this, but I have had no rot in that bed. Another bed is watered from underground pipes and gets no water at all on the surface of the ground. In one row in this bed I am losing about a third of my clumps. That was the row where I put some liquid fertilizer last February. I find mine do best with no nitrogen fertilizer, just some super phosphate.
Francelle Edwards, Glendale, Arizona, Zone 9
----- Original Message -----
From: linda Mann
To: iris-talk@egroups.com
Sent: Friday, September 29, 2000 12:32 PM
Subject: [iris-talk] Re: CULT: soft rot
Walter Moores said:
Yeah, but you got that wonderful 'stress free' loess soil, and something
tells me you are knowledgeable enough about pedigrees and hybridizers'
selection programs that you don't order just any ol thing. Fer
instance, you already said you avoid the early bloomers. Our club
usually has a large number of display stalks as well, and even I usually
have reasonably good bloom for the brief time after frost damage and
before drought.
On my gravel, rot from poor drainage just doesn't happen, but it is
impossible to maintain an even moisture supply (even if I wanted to),
and air circulation is usually really poor, fostering spot and rot on
foliage.
So like I say, keep 'em as unstressed as possible (gradual changes in
water, nutrients, and temperature) and they will do better, regardless.
Linda Mann zone 7/8 nawth of Baja, & definitely a stress zone for
irises.
> John, you said it better than I.
>
> Mississippi is one of the rainiest, most humid and hottest areas
> anywhere to try to grow bearded irises yet we are very successful
> with a lively society that displayed nearly 200 stalks at our last
> show. Everyone plants in elevated beds or on high ridges or
> slopes. We have very little rot.
>
> Older, historic irises can rot just like the new ones. Plant them
> where drainage is poor and see what happens.
>
> Walter Moores
> Enid Lake, MS USA 7/8 (
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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