Re: Rose Rust and Transplants (was Wisterias ).
robans wrote:
>
> Moira;
> I just copied your discussion on rose rust for use in our Master Gardener's
> publication. I will use it if you give me permission. I have never before heard a discussion on the life cycle of rust.
Hi Robert
Please make use of this as you suggest. When I wrote the same thing some
years ago in a magazine for which I was then a columnist I got a similar
reaction from our National Rose Organization.
However, I have to stress this method won't work for just any rust. The
common rose rust is one of only a few species which goes throught every
possible spore form in its yearly cycle. Many other rusts only have a
part of this cycle and some have even reduced it to just one kind of
spore. The success one can have dealing with rose rust is pretty well a
function of the limited production of the clustercup stage, giving a
reasonable chance of destroying all the pustules.
One really needs to get to know which roses to watch. Some (Queen
Elizabeth, for instance) are such martyrs to the fungus they tend to be
infected wherever grown. Some in contrast are so seldom infected one
may guess they are only susceptible to some rare strain of the rust, For
me Peace is in this category. Having grown it in a number of gardens
including my own, I only once spotted an infection on it. This was a
newly purchased plant from a different district and luckily the rust
was at the cluster-cup stage and was very effectively "nipped in the
bud".
In general most susceptible plants are in the pink-red range. Very few
yellows and whites suffer. However there are exceptions, one of the most
striking being the old favourite First Love (a tall-growing clear pink).
I don't know if it is much grown any more but healthwise I found it a
remarkable rose, never apparently suffering any disease at all. This
would be an excellent rose to breed from I should think if one was
interested in improving disease resistance.
Your analyzation of the Wisteria problem
> is also excellent. I always stop and read all of your discussions on any subject
> because of their clarity and correctness. I do question your judgment that
> nurserymen don't force bloom plants. I had a discussion with a gentleman that is
> now a CEO of a very large nursery supplying a chain hardware in US. He stated "If
> it isn't blooming we can't sell it." ,and the profit motive drive them all.
What I actually said was nurserymen don't ALWAYS force plants to get
them in bloom. I am sure you are right that they are very often guilty,
but even quite moderate cramping can encourage that early blooming is
some species.
< Before I buy any plants I look at the rootsystem to see if it is
overgrown.
A very wise precaution. However, I always have a nose for a bargain and
have sometimes bought such plants cheap and revived them by quite severe
root and top pruning to overcome their stagnation. My most successful
buy of this sort was a Pieris forrestii which sat in the bargain area
with one miserable gangly stem and just a bunch of leaves on the top.
Twenty years later it is a well-furnished sturdy shrub in a big pot near
my front door. However, It is gamble, as not all such waifs respond so
well.
Vegetables overgrown in packs will develop too soon and not produce to
their best ability.
This is something which can't be overemphasised, not only for
vegetables, but for most bedding plants also. Many people go for the
biggest plants, whereas quite tiny but sturdy ones, which have had a
minimal time in the containers, will get over planting shock much
quicker and make big sturdy plants more rapidly than their gangly (and
often woody) fellows. One that is always quoted as only succeeding well
from small plants is broccoli.
Another point with bedding plants is that many will flower prematurely
in punnets and one does far better to try for ones which are not yet
showing any flower buds. This does not apply to all kinds, however. For
instance French marigolds don't seem to mind and nor do Impatiens.
And as for plants which have been kept in the packs too long, I once had
considerable success with some bargain petunias, which had got so far as
sending up a spindly flower stalk with on miserable flower. I got these
for next to nothing and having nothing to lose cut them back to the
basal leaves before planting out. Later in the season they recovered and
bloomed well!
And just one more point. unless the transplants are is separate cells,
one is bound to damage the roots to some extent disentangling them and
it may be a day or two before root function is restored. To help them
over this hump, see that they have some plenty of water and temporary
sun and wind protection and give them a tonic by watering with a foliar
feed. For preference use one based on seaweed, or failing that fish, as
these are rich in trace elements and the seaweed extracts contain
growth-enhancing substances as well.
> Thanks again for being on the discussion group.
My pleasure.
Moira
Tony & Moira Ryan <theryans@xtra.co.nz>
Wainuiomata, New Zealand. (on the "Ring of Fire" in the SW Pacific).
Lat. 41:16S Long. 174:58E. Climate: Mediterranean/Temperate
