Re: fertilizer when and how much


Well, Dana!! There's one in every crowd.  What's cygon?  The real question is,
what's a borer and how do you treat them?

Borers are larvae of the (*^)% moth that lays its eggs on and near iris
foliage. Those nasty critters eat the tuber and the stalk and the bloom
and ruin yer whole day!!

If the grower sprays cygon, as sytemic insecticide, at the right time in
the spring, and follows the regimine prescribed by folks who do this as
a rite of spring, the damage is not so severe that you can't take at least
a few stalks to the Iris Show!!.  Some folks dig them out by hand, some
folks declare they don't have any borers, and some folks, like the gang
of Irisarians in Western New York have so many we have dedicated our hearts
and minds to the problem and Kathy Guest named the newsletter the Irisborer.

These things are never far away as we are always in the midst of one or 
another of the life-stages of these things.  Maybe that's an advantage
of all this rain, the &^(*%^ little moths MIGHT not be so actively laying
eggs?????

One of the reasons for the discussion about cutting/not cutting foliage,
has to do with the (*Y(^* eggs.

Cygon is a very very toxic insecticide and should be used very very 
cautiously, if at all.  Very risky stuff that sends some people into 
spasams !!It smells very bad, has a tendency to kill beneficial bugs for 
a short time.  No one has come up with a better remedy, however, except
perhaps to move to Texas

Are there no borer in Texas?  How's the real estate prices??

Carolyn Schaffner in Buffalo, NY
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