Re: CULT: Beginners need advice on watering & deterring animals

On Wednesday, September 10, 2003, at 11:08  AM, Marilyn Devine wrote:
Hi! This is a new venture for me, both horticulturally & technologically - desperation with an iris "situation" has encouraged me to seek help through this kind of forum, which I've never done on any topic ever before! So here goes: we live in the Toronto area, love irises, planted several over the past 4 years - the Siberians are doing great but the beardeds (I now realize) needed better drainage, less water & more sun, so we prepared 2 new raised beds for them with all of those plus new rich sandy soil ......
Sounds great. I think your issue will be more what happens in the spring with freeze/thaw cycles, but I will let others address that (who know more than I).

1) easier question first: I've just transplanted about 25 rhizomes - one book I consulted said to water them every 2nd day for 10 days then once a week - another book said to water them once, them leave them alone ...... what to do??????
The best advice I could give, not knowing what your weather conditions are like , is this:

Recognize what the plant needs. When you transplant the rhizomes, you trim the roots. The new ones will grow from the "chin" of the rhizome - the white part at the bottom of the new leaves. If you see little yellow dots or protuberances there, that is the beginning of a new root.

The roots need moisture (but not soggy soil) to grow well. As the roots grow deeper, you can water less often (but deeper). So for the first 2-3 of weeks, water when the soil starts to dry out down to 2-3 inches deep. How often you water depends on your weather. Is is hot?, cool?, sunny?, cloudy?, humid?
Does your bed retain water or does it just run through? etc

The best way is to check every other day or so to see how dry the bed is. As you learn how your bed retains water, you will know how often you have to water.

After the plant starts to grow its fans again (often the middle leaf starts to shoot up) you know that the roots have started to re-establish themselves and you can water less frequently (but, as before, deeper)

Sorry, I can't help you on the critter(s)

John | "There be dragons here"
| Annotation used by ancient cartographers
| to indicate the edge of the known world.

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