Worm damage

Hey everybody,
Hey everybody !

Imagine me in the seedling bed with a large white towel.  Now, imagine
me throwing it in to end the season in total disgust :-(  Well, that's
what I did today after discovering that small white worms had borrowed
into the center of ALL of my seedlings causing them to get gooey and not
open.  All of my irises were effected and now I'm going to have to take
serious action, for all I know, these are borers that burrowed up
instead of down.  

What is the least toxic yet effective insecticide I can use against
these bloom season destroying pests ?  If this continues, I'll never be
able to grow irises here again.

Only one SA in CANAVERAL showed up with a brave face and horns out
stretched to the sky.  I immediately crossed it with with my best TB
STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN.  Even STH suffered from this worm damage on some
flowers but it is hands down the best TB here.  DOCTOR NO is sick and
needs to see the doctor with symptoms like virus marks and three aborted
full size stalks.  I was pleasantly surprised with FANCY WOMAN but only
saw one bloom and the rest aborted or got devoured.  I took rapid action
and crosses it on the only available victim, LIGHT BEAM.

From my seedling patch, a THORNBIRD X GOLDEN GALAXY seedling proved to
be the best of what bloomed and did show one small horn.  I have another
SKY HOOKS seedling which may not open fully but does have purple horns.
I'll send photos when I can convince my wife to down load them since I
don't have a working USB port here. Otherwise, it's a total right off
here until I can control the worms and borers.  

I have managed to make a few crosses with pollen sent from Bill and
Randall but most have not taken but I need to wait on some more before I
cry wolf.

On a positive note, I've got 150 seedlings to deal with from last years
crop and another 75 from the year before that I thought might get a
second chance at germination.  Even when things look as bleak as they do
now, I still have hope that I can turn this bad luck around.

Hope everybody fared better than I did.

Waiting for the Daylilies ;-)
Chris


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