Re: CULT: acclimated cultivars? (was Neb rot)

I've wondered about that too - most cultivars that rot here when they
first arrive tend to be more prone to subsequent rot.  Which is why I
really soak them in pots of good potting mix when they first arrive - I
want to identify the worst rotters ASAP.

However, some cultivars will rot out the original mother rhizome, but
increases seem to do fine (same thing you've noticed).

Sometimes, the cultivar will recover and do well - the only example I
can think of right now is IMMORTALITY.  People kept insisting I grow it
and I kept killing it, until finally it got established and has done
well ever since.  If it rots at all, I don't notice it.

More often, the increases will live but about the time they get big
enough to bloom, will rot or some will survive some years and do well
while others in the clump will die. Once the mother rhizome has rotted
away, the increases are not connected and the whole clump seems less
likely to rot away.  This year, several cultivars bloomed here that I
thought had died long ago - OUTRAGEOUS FORTUNE, ORANGE SLICES are two
that I hadn't seen for so long that labels had faded & I didn't know
what they were until checking my notebook.

Maybe three possibilities -
(1) nutritional state of the new rhizome isn't what it needs to be to
survive rot attacks in the new garden, but increases will be;

(2) stress is less for increases because they have less growth to
support and gradually grow functional roots to accomodate tops;

(3) genetic drift <g> - each generation of increase is slightly
different from the preceeding one - probably to complicated to be true,
but if the genes that regulate various repair mechanisms are unstable,
why not?  A few years ago, somebody on list cited a reference that
showed this has happened with roses? I think.  A simple test would be to
do DNA profile comparisons of a few historic cultivars that originally
came from the same source, but have been growing continuously in very
different climate/soils for many years.  The more years, the more
opportunity...

Janet in Denmark,  WI
<I lost Coral Chalice to rot this year too. A number of my other TBs
also rotted over the summer, but they did put out some increases before
the original rhizomes disappeared.  The replacements look strong and
healthy and I'm wondering if these increases will have a better chance
of surviving having been "born and raised" here..... Have others on Iris
Talk found that while their original TB rhizomes have died, the
increases have eventually become acclimated and prospered?>

--
Linda Mann east Tennessee USA zone 7/8

Tennessee Whooping Crane Walkathon:
<http://www.whoopingcranesovertn.org>
American Iris Society web site <http://www.irises.org>
iris-talk/Mallorn archives: <http://www.hort.net/lists/iris-talk/>
iris-photos/Mallorn archives: <http://www.hort.net/lists/iris-photos/>




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