RE: Precious Doll

Ken,

I have added hardwood bark chunks into my soil and completely rototilled it
under.  The negative of this, like with standard mulch, you eventually have
to worry about a lack of Nitrogen.  When the wood decomposes, it sucks the
Nitrogen out of your soil.

I am in Chicago Zone 5 and I have two suggestions that I have used myself.
One is to pull all the plants out of the soil when it is a cooler and moist
season.  Fall is the perfect time.  I have heavy clay soil.  I've added
sharp sand like you, but find it can sometimes turn "cementish" in my heavy
dirt.  My recommendation is to add a bit (not too much or you'll have OTHER
issues) of rotted manure, a couple wheelbarrow full of small pebbles and
(especially if this is an iris bed) something to help turn the Ph a bit
acidic - I prefer something organic like peat moss. Thoroughly plow
everything under to aerate your soil.

The gardens which have the above bed treatments grow perennials and iris's
twice as big, sometimes 3X as big as my other beds planted at the same time.
It's absolutely amazing.  Turning the soil over and "airing" the pathogens
should help immensely also.

My second suggestion, since you do not want to build beds in a different
location, is to extend your beds by 24" in the front.  Pull all the iris's
out of the old beds.  For one season only, plant them in the "front" "new"
line of bed.  Rotate the crops - let the beds behind the new line be filled
with something different for this one year. Then the following season put
your iris's back where you want them permanently, making sure you've
completely treated the roots with a proper "pathogen" killer before
planting.  You should be good to go for years after.  The idea is you
haven't actually "moved" the beds, but have just slightly extended the old
ones providing some new soil for you to work with the help the iris's.

Hope my suggestions help!  Good luck!

Thanks!
Shawna 
 


-----Original Message-----
From: sibrob@yahoogroups.com [s*@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of
Ken Walkup
Sent: Monday, September 26, 2005 5:37 AM
To: sibrob@yahoogroups.com
Subject: RE: [sibrob] Precious Doll


Hi Bob,
         One of the recommendations I got was to improve the soil 
drainage.  So, over the last few years I've added lots of coarse sand to 
the native heavy clay.  That may be a factor in what seems to be a 
decreasing problem.  Adding hardwood bark chunks has also been recommended, 
presumably because that improves drainage too.  I have also read that 
shallow tilling is good since it exposes more of the pathogen to the 
elements.  I'd love to be able to rotate the crop, but that's not happening 
unless I add more garden space.
         I remember I wanted to cross Precious Doll with Isabelle; don't 
know why I never got around to it.
         Ken
At 10:03 PM 9/24/2005, you wrote:
>Ken -- You're not the only one to have had serious root rot problems. I 
>lost a whole year of seedlings to it back in the 80s -- virtually every 
>one! I had planted the seedlings in the same soil as the previous 
>Siberian seedling crop and obviously some soil pathogen had built up 
>and was lurking. The good news -- having no other place to put the next 
>year's crop, we put a few inches of new soil on that same area and 
>tilled it shallowly, then planted the seedlings with finger's crossed. 
>Those seedlings grow beautifully with no sign of disease. It was one of 
>our best seedling years ever -- it gave Coronation Anthem, Strawberry 
>Fair, Shall We Dance and Simple Gifts! Since then, though, I have tried 
>never to plant new seedlings where old ones have grown. I don't know if 
>this experience helps, but if all else fails, maybe you could try 
>raising the growing area by adding a bunch of new, and presumably 
>clean, soil. By the way I think I did cross Precious Doll with a 
>6-petal type, but I don't think it set any seed. The photo attached 
>shows the partial 6-fall pattern on PD (fall pattern starting to show 
>on two of the three standards, though not very strongly developed). Bob
>
>



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