TOPIC: First seed developing and question on when to water ?

Hey everyone

Here is a good post on \"how to pick a disease free site for growing\".

This is from K_duce

\"VAfiddler, wow i bet you felt really special being there, good job. sounds like you have gotten alot of valuable growing information from those guys,. I was wondering did they mention what time of year was the best time to even do a site evaluation?
My opinion is that it is best to do a site evaluation in the middle of summer, here is my theory on this subject, by waiting until the middle of summer you should be able to identify areas in the forest that already have large amounts of disease growing in the soil. Alot of times you will walk in very thick ground vegatation and everything looks great, and in other spots you will find the same companion plants growing however you will also be able to see plants that are already suffering the effects of disease, (alot of dead or brown leaves, wilting, ect.) It is nearly impossible to detect this in the spring because the plants are just starting to grow. and in the fall alot of the companion plants have already gone dormant. Just my opinion.\"
K_duce

I think he has a good point on when and how to pick a site that does'nt have disease.

I've never considered this when choosing my growing sites. I check for grade and aspect, shade, soil, companion plants etc. I have not been looking for signs of disease. And I have been lucky to have no disease. But I now will include \"looking for disease\" in my prospective site inspections.

I think another thing for everyone to consider: before you transplant wild roots into your garden, make sure that they are healthy and not diseased plants.

If we have a disease free garden. We need to keep it that way by not introducing diseased seeds and roots or rootlets into our gardens.

I think that once disease is brought into our gardens it is very hard to eliminate it.

classicfur

TN, I would really try and find out what you have for a fungal disease if that is what it is. I own an apple orchard and what we try and do reguarding disease is to identify, learn the life cycle of it, and try and break that cycle. Sometimes it can be thru natural, mechanical or thru sprays, but you need to corectly identify the problem first or you are just shooting in the dark!

In regards to spraying, you may stop any further new spread of the disease and depending on what is sprayed you may not even kill the disease. Must fungal disease is spread by wind after the acuspores are released by a triggering mechanism, usually a combination of degree days built up, temperature and rain. Most likely your problem started a few weeks before scars even appeared. If you are to spray it should be done preemptivly next year. Again learning what your problem is would be the first step to break the fugal cycle.

One good way of slowing and maybe even stopping the cycle is to collect the stems/leaves in the fall when they have died back for the winter and get rid of or burn them. Most likely the leaves are a host for the disease to overwinter and develope for release next year. Also see if there are any other types of plants nearby that may be a host and try of disposing of them also. This may help w/ identification to.

Good luck!

TN

I agree with you, don't sweat it!!!
Alt. gives you yellow spots with a dry paper centre of brown,the stems of mature plants will have brown areas that thin and dry out and colapse the plant.If you look close at the stems of colapsed plants there will be a few black verticly oriented spots, these are the spore producers.
The idea is to get the little beggers a few years to get strong enough to live with this fungal assault.
I see it at the edges of some plots where a bush hog damaged plants with the flying debris, other wise all you'll get is the spots, if all is healthy.
Your idea of pickin the damage is the right way to help control this fungus.IT WILL NOT DAMAGE THE ROOT but the seed harvest may suffer.
If you get a chance research the trillium and alternaria to get the proper perspective.

Don't like the idea of soaking the plants when watering.Try digging down in the soil close to the plants to see whats up.
I'm more concerned with the ground tempature at root level than moisture content but try controlling that.

Guy

Forgot to mention ,the least soil disturbance the better for this fungus, seed bed or transplants.
Your old gardens will seldom have this problem. But don't panic and spray chemicals , as maya says identify the right disease.
Spraying must be done with full body protection and respirator and chemical training. Up here we need a chemical licence to spray.

guy

Guy,

I appreciate your experienced comments and advice there.

I did water my seed producing bed plants that one evening - after 3 weeks of no rain and extreme temps (highs around 95-98 several days). The ground was extremely dry - I checked outside of my seng bed, but now on that seng bed I put 100 lbs of composted peat on top of the roots and they are down fairly deep, then I put maple leaf mulch on top so they are mulched well.

Hopefully they will stay cool enough.

The drip hose irrigation system worked well - I adjusted the water pressure until it was just seeping out of the hose an not spraying up any (to wet the leaves or stems).

That was about a week ago and yesterday and today we got some good rain (finally) !

I just checked on my seed bed again and the berries are starting to pop out.

And so far no noticable difference in the advance or size of the yellow spots.

Here is a few pics showing a couple.

The pic below is the same berry stem that had that 1 berry on it last week. Today looks like 6 or so berries on there.



TNhunter

Here is another that has a few berries starting on now..

And I went down to the bed where I found yellow spots on some 3 leafers and took a good look at them today.

They look about the same as they did a couple weeks ago.

This bed is a bit high on the hill. I was sort of experimenting to see how they would do up that far and some of them have signs of that hot dry 3 weeks - turning lighter yellow and looking a little stressed out, but they are still hanging in there.

Here is a pic of a few and you can see the yellow spots on some of them.

Also notice - what I expect - may be fairly uncommon in seedlings.

One came up this year with all 5 leaves on.

I have seen others here post pics of 4 leafers, and I have found one of those in my beds too, but this one actually has all 5 leaves the first year.



TNhunter

TN,
I had one 5 leafer come up last year in my shade garden bed. But it was a spot that was too sunny and it died. I would have like to see what it would have turned into someday.

I'll post some pictures of some of my plots as soon as the wife stops giving me work orders.

guy