Day lilly ?

[ducks4you]

OMGosh, Limestone?!?!? I have heard that most water supplies and wells in the US have heavy limestone deposits. I think @bobm was talking about a wet year and I suspect that a fungus has attacked his daylily. I have had 2 fruit trees attacked with blight. The youngest one, a Bartlett Pear survived after "surgery" 8 inches behind the blackened branches. 17 lovely, tasty and almost all huge pears in 2019 from this tree. The oldest one, a very old apple tree, is about to be chopped down. I cut off smaller branches, then larger branches, watched the damage done by fungus. It produce exactly one apple this season. I miss the older Professor Emertis on Mid American Gardener since he passed on in 2019. His solution to a tree with a big probem was a chainsaw. I imagine that @bobm can spend his gardening hours better than trying to save this one perennial. Plus, It MIGHT heal itself and come back next year in high bloom. I still say, don't do any more for it.

 

[catjac1975]

OMGosh, Limestone?!?!? I have heard that most water supplies and wells in the US have heavy limestone deposits. I think @bobm was talking about a wet year and I suspect that a fungus has attacked his daylily. I have had 2 fruit trees attacked with blight. The youngest one, a Bartlett Pear survived after "surgery" 8 inches behind the blackened branches. 17 lovely, tasty and almost all huge pears in 2019 from this tree. The oldest one, a very old apple tree, is about to be chopped down. I cut off smaller branches, then larger branches, watched the damage done by fungus. It produce exactly one apple this season. I miss the older Professor Emertis on Mid American Gardener since he passed on in 2019. His solution to a tree with a big probem was a chainsaw. I imagine that @bobm can spend his gardening hours better than trying to save this one perennial. Plus, It MIGHT heal itself and come back next year in high bloom. I still say, don't do any more for it.

Limestone is regional. the NE has acid soil.But the micronutrients in it solve a lot of what ails daylily leaves. Going dormant also sounds reasonable.

 

[bobm]

Well, it finally got dry enough to dig , so I dug next to the first daylilly. That shovel full yielded a side shoot with a bulb in it... which was mushy. So I continued to dig up the main plant after encountering more mushy roots. So I dug up the entire plant and the results was more of the same. So, I finally dug up the other 2 plants. All showed either mush or start of mush. Oh well ! anyone have a bright idea as to what would be good replacement candidate ? Our climate is mild Mediteraian . Temperature variance can be 15* with snow for a few days in the winter and 98* ( record)in late Aug. with only a sprinkle or two in late summer. Our annual rainfall is about 28" . most of the rainfall varies from a light drizzle to light rain , with some cells producing a gully washer that last less than 1/2 hour producing about an 1" of rainfall for that day. Our soils drain almost immediately with very few puddles that may last a day. Water table varies from over 100' to over 500' depending on your area.

 

[catjac1975]

Well, it finally got dry enough to dig , so I dug next to the first daylilly. That shovel full yielded a side shoot with a bulb in it... which was mushy. So I continued to dig up the main plant after encountering more mushy roots. So I dug up the entire plant and the results was more of the same. So, I finally dug up the other 2 plants. All showed either mush or start of mush. Oh well ! anyone have a bright idea as to what would be good replacement candidate ? Our climate is mild Mediteraian . Temperature variance can be 15* with snow for a few days in the winter and 98* ( record)in late Aug. with only a sprinkle or two in late summer. Our annual rainfall is about 28" . most of the rainfall varies from a light drizzle to light rain , with some cells producing a gully washer that last less than 1/2 hour producing about an 1" of rainfall for that day. Our soils drain almost immediately with very few puddles that may last a day. Water table varies from over 100' to over 500' depending on your area.

DAYLILIES ARE IMPOSSIBLE TO KILL...WITH SOME EXCEPTIONS. YOU MAY HAVE PURCHASED DAYLILIES ,sorry, that are not cold hardy. Most are but if they were hybridized in the deep south you may have gotten non hardy plants.So if your temps go to 0 or so they may not survive that. The other side of that is if you have northern plants that need dormancy they also can eventually justs disappear if you have a season that does not become cold enough. There is something called crown rot that seems to effect warm climate plants-I have never had that happen. Next time buy locally grown daylilies- or any other plants for that matter. There is likely a daylily farm not far from you. We are every where.

 

[flowerbug]

@catjac1975 i don't think it was a cold issue as the plant was growing and blooming this season.

fungal attack by the sounds of it, but i don't know of any that do that as i've never seen it here (we have about a dozen different types of daylily here and all of them have been in place for 15yrs or longer).

if you can find any parts of it that are still alive/green you can try to rescue it by taking off all the brown and dead stuff and dipping it in a little rooting hormone and poking it in some potting soil which you keep damp and out of direct sun (covered too). perhaps you can get it to reroot and grow again.

but if mush all through then don't bother and try a different plant. that area may benefit from a soil transplant (you want any good humus you can find around your property mixed in the soil you put in there). the more diversity the better to help fight off whatever fungi that might have been. bacteria and fungi are in competition, but also the whole living system is a bunch of different organisms and even things that most people don't consider alive at all (viruses, prions, bacteriophages, etc.) which are there and cycling off each other and so the more diversity you can bring to bear means there are more cycles working off each other which helps give the system more balance than if there are only a few...

 

[Ridgerunner]

This is the only thing I could find that causes them to rot. I'll let you decide how close to your situation this is. It is interesting that it says to discard all infected materials yet these bacteria are normal soil inhabitants. I've actually done this a few times, not as often as I probably should, but after I dig a diseased plant out I wash and scrub the shovel clean and then soak the head in a bleach solution for a bit to disinfect it. Diseased plants go to the landfill or burn barrel.

Soft Rot: Pectobacterium carotovorum causes bacterial rot at the base of the flowers and in the rhizomes. The bacteria that cause rot are normal soil inhabitants. Disease development is favored by high temperatures, poor air circulation, poor soil drainage and improper fertilization.

Prevention & Treatment: To prevent soft rot, avoid poor soil drainage by amending heavy clay soils with organic matter (such as with composted pine bark or compost), avoid poor air circulation conditions in plant areas, avoid problem planting sites (do not plant susceptible daylily varieties in the same spot where plants show soft rot symptoms), permit wounded plants to heal (cork over) before planting, and do not fertilize or water too much. Discard all infected plant material.

https://hgic.clemson.edu/factsheet/daylily-diseases-insect-pests/

I don't have any plant suggestions. I'm not familiar with your climate and not sure what kind of plant you want there.

 

[flowerbug]

@Ridgerunner i'd say that sounds pretty likely.

with all the rains we've been having recently even the normally prevalent lactobacilli can be a problem to the bean pods. they look ok on the outside but when i open them they are soggy smelly ferment starting up. conditions can favor one creature over another for the short term.

lactobacilli are all over everything, they're what end up being favored by slightly salty water and are used to make saurkraut, kimchi, naturally fermented pickles, yogurts, etc..

 

[ducks4you]

@bobm it's hard to help when you don't know WHERE you live. Southeast, or Texas, or Alabama would help a LOT. We don't need personal information, like your address or town, just generally your location. Thanks!

 

[catjac1975]

@catjac1975 i don't think it was a cold issue as the plant was growing and blooming this season.

fungal attack by the sounds of it, but i don't know of any that do that as i've never seen it here (we have about a dozen different types of daylily here and all of them have been in place for 15yrs or longer).

if you can find any parts of it that are still alive/green you can try to rescue it by taking off all the brown and dead stuff and dipping it in a little rooting hormone and poking it in some potting soil which you keep damp and out of direct sun (covered too). perhaps you can get it to reroot and grow again.

but if mush all through then don't bother and try a different plant. that area may benefit from a soil transplant (you want any good humus you can find around your property mixed in the soil you put in there). the more diversity the better to help fight off whatever fungi that might have been. bacteria and fungi are in competition, but also the whole living system is a bunch of different organisms and even things that most people don't consider alive at all (viruses, prions, bacteriophages, etc.) which are there and cycling off each other and so the more diversity you can bring to bear means there are more cycles working off each other which helps give the system more balance than if there are only a few...

If it is diseased I would not try to save it. No diseases in the North on daylilies.

 

[flowerbug]

If it is diseased I would not try to save it. No diseases in the North on daylilies.

yeah, nothing here i've seen either.