CULT: aspects of rot - long

Hello Folks,

Rot has been a strange visitor this year.  About a week and a half ago I
received a shipment from a supplier I've ordered from for several years now.
I promptly opened the box, examined everything and then spread them on
newspaper in the office along with those from other suppliers.  Due to the
continuing foraging of grasshoppers, everything has been potted including
anything I've dug from my own yard.  This weekend I reached some of what was
left of that shipment and discovered one plant had rotted lying around in
the cool, dry air of the house.  Leaves, rhizome and all were mushy and
smelly.  Beyond any attempt at salvaging.  This bad effect had the contrary
effect of making me feel some better, though.  Last year I dug a clump that
appeared to be in the early stages of rot, gave it a bleach bath and laid it
out to dry.  It continued to rot lying on wire with air circulating all
around.  Another bleach bath and back to dry and it still rotted.  Finally a
much stronger bleach solution and back to dry and it STILL rotted.  I'd
started with a good size clump with rot only in evidence on a couple of
rhizomes, but by the time the rot stopped, I only had one rhizome left.  6-8
of them simply rotted no matter.  Oddly, that rhizome has gone on to do well
and there is not a hint of rot in another good size clump that has formed.
For the record, I also planted that rhizome back in the exact spot with no
soil treatment.  I saw a bloom stalk this spring and if the clump holds up,
should have several next spring.  Go figure.

Otherwise, rot has been more persistent this year than any I've experienced
before.  I think because of the grasshopper damage.  The one thing most
rotters have in common is either they were new acquisitions last year or
they were moved and relocated last year.  The further back the last move
goes, the less rot.  Those in place and undisturbed for 4 or more years have
had almost no rot at all.  In fact, of that group only one has shown rot and
it seems to have recovered with no assistance.  Soil makeup can't be the
sole cause, because I planted some new acquisitions in the established beds
without troubling to change the soil (in a hurry) and those have rotted
right along with those in new, amended soil.

Treatment.  Some have received it, some have not.  In both cases, some are
going to survive the rot and some will or already have perished.  One new
thing I did try that seems to have helped is a cattle antibiotic with the
trade name Liquamycin.  This is an injectable form of oxytetracycline.  On a
few selected (I was desperate) rhizomes that appeared gone and of some
cultivars I really wanted I loaded a needle and actually tried injecting it.
Didn't work on a firm rhizome so I essentially squirted it directly on the
wound area and over the rhizome.  I did this on some after a bleach bath,
some without, and some that were in pots and rotting badly that I simply
left in the pots removing as much rotted material as I could without
uprooting what little was left.  I wouldn't have given most of these another
three days and the first ones to get the treatment was around three weeks
ago.  They still survive.  These were rhizomes that were nearly completely
gone, so it is the side increases that survive, but the rhizome tissue was
soft at the time.  It has since hardened and the rot doesn't seem to have
progressed further.  I don't recommend this treatment.  It's very expensive,
for one thing.  I have most of the bottle still on hand for the cattle.
Also, poor use of this kind of thing will lead to resistance.  There is no
way of knowing how much would be optimum.  I'm not looking to grow
antibiotic resistant rot and I think misinformed use of this kind of thing
could lead to that.  However, I tried it this time with a promise to myself
not to make it a habit.

Rot in families or as a natural tendency of specific cultivars - couldn't
prove it by what I'm seeing.  Rotters from other years have no signs this
year if they weren't moved.  Plants I've had for a long time and never had
rot, were much more likely to have had it this year if they were moved last
year, or even moved the year or two before.  So when I had two clumps, one
new and one well established, I often saw rot in the newly relocated clump
but not in the one left alone.

I can't figure rot out.  It certainly doesn't require moisture here.  It
also doesn't seem to linger in the same spot of soil.  It can wreak havoc in
one clump and not another next door under the same stressed conditions.
True, the worse the stress - the more likely to get rot.  But it sure wasn't
a guarantee.  I think the salvage rate of success is about the same rate of
success as some I just ignored and left alone, but trying did make me feel a
bit better.

I'd like to say I'm going to give up trying to beat it, but the next time I
see rot on something I'm really wanting, I'm sure to try again anyway.

Donald Eaves
donald@eastland.net
Texas Zone 7b, USA - and who is still not certain what will survive this
summer and what will not and wondering when, if ever, the grasshoppers are
going to let me put something outside without it being devoured.




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