Re: CULT: aspects of rot - long

Dear Donald,
I hate to repeat myself, but I have achieved wonderful results in controling rot by the use of anti-bacterial soap. I coat each rizhome with it before planting. It has been very successful for me. This summer I have had a number of clumps start to rot. I merely removed the rotted leaves and squirted a liberal amounts into the affected area. It has worked like a charm for me. Dial makes this stuff and Wal Mart has an equal that is a little cheaper. I say it is wonderful stuff. I have never found Clorox to be effective at all. Hope this helps. 
Vernon Johnson
Mesena,Ga.

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Donald Eaves 
  To: iris-talk@yahoogroups.com 
  Sent: Tuesday, September 17, 2002 9:07 PM
  Subject: [iris-talk] 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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