Just dug up the large bed of iris I got and planted last year.60 + Iris in a large bucket of water hoping to drown all those little pest.
Was best thing to do from what I read.

I am new to growing them well kinda had bunch of old purple and blue ones at the old house and never had any pest problem with them.
I brought some with me and planted them by my mailbox and they are doing fine.

The small bed iris are doing fine as well,but after researching I discovered what I did wrong in the large bed
I covered them in early spring to fight off weeds

So any safe weed killer for iris so I wont have to weed everyday.

For Iris the bearded kind, most people use a pre-emergement called PREEN and not the one that says weed and feed.

Being commercial I use a pre emergement that is either Ronstar or Freehand.

Hope this helps.

If you would like a box of many colors and sizes for the price of a large flat rate box let me know. None will have names on them

D

Dee 'Dapper' is in bloom. In our soil it looks dark purple. I know plants are bright in the PNW. However, it is very cute & lives up to the name. John refuses to use Preen after reading the label so we hand weed. The pasture grass is the most difficult to catch the roots, so no help there,anyway.

irisloverdee said:For Iris the bearded kind, most people use a pre-emergement called PREEN and not the one that says weed and feed.

Being commercial I use a pre emergement that is either Ronstar or Freehand.

Hope this helps.

If you would like a box of many colors and sizes for the price of a large flat rate box let me know. None will have names on them

D

Wow realy? That is so kind of you to offer.
I would love some but I won't be able to pay shipping until next week.
Thank you Thank you Thank you. Just message me how you want shipping paid and I will get it out next week.

Hazeleyes,

Did I miss something? What pests are your referring to? What part of Missouri are you in?

K

I can't belive I didn't say what the pest was...iris borer

Im over in Chariton county

I am so sorry you are having problems already.

I am in Jackson County and it is too early to be able to see borer here. They would be at a very tiny stage at this point. What are you seeing? Since you are new at iris I was just wondering what you are experiencing. Could you provide a picture or a description? These iris people on here are amazing at solutions. Or, perhaps, I missed the original discussion?

K

Holes all over and chewed down the side all the way to the rhizome.I will go take some pics and post.

I see the damage you are referring to. I do not recognize it as borer. Have you seen any borers? I can see why you might think it is borer, but only one of the pictures with the chewed sides of the leaves shows any damage that I could suspect possibly a borer did it or possibly not.The others really do not match my experience. I would not be pulling anything out of the ground without absolute diagnosis. If you are new, there is a bit of a learning curve, and you can recover from losses with kind folks like Dee around. If it is borer, you need to cut open the rhizome and see if a borer has chewed and hollowed out a trail for itself, otherwise I do not think you have borer.

Sorry you are going through this, but from appearances this is not that serious a problem unless it is genuinely borer.

K

I already pulled them all and soaked them in a bucket over night,they are laying out and drying now.Will be cutting the bad ones back and seeing if anything is left in them. Will also check the rhizomes.

My guess might be slugs

I have to agree with Katherine, I have had a borer infestation, and it didn't look at all like this. They seem to ususally chew their way down the center of the leaves to the rhizomes, and when you dig them you will see the whiteish worm/larvae. I have no idea what's eating your irises, but you might want to consider using a systemic insecticide. I know it's supposed to be the year of the cicada, but since I have no experience with them, I don't know if they would do this type of damage. You might take some to your county agent, or perhaps you have a University near by that might help you.

It will have to be a safe insecticide I have free ranging chickens.

I am moving the Iris to a new bed this weekend and will research a safe insecticide.

Will also makes some beer traps for slugs,see if its slugs.

Thanks for more info,if my muscovite ducks would not eat my tomato plants and holly hocks down to nubs I would let them free range and eat the slugs if its slugs.

I have free range chickens too, and they don't go by the iris beds. (except to do weeding, but that's a whole new joke/story you'll have to dig out of old posts, lol) You use the product in the early spring, and then it's obsorbed by the plant and kills the borer. it's the same stuff that kills lawn grub worms.

My guess is that you have several things going on. Some of the damage you show I think I experienced with crickets and some kind of worm and then there is other damage in your pix that might come from another source like slugs.

K

irisloverdee said:For Iris the bearded kind, most people use a pre-emergement called PREEN and not the one that says weed and feed.

Being commercial I use a pre emergement that is either Ronstar or Freehand.

Hope this helps.

If you would like a box of many colors and sizes for the price of a large flat rate box let me know. None will have names on them

D

Looks like they are all going to make it so I won't need any but thank you for the offer.

I am fairly new to growing Iris. I tried in Phoenix several years ago. now I live in WV. and I have fallen in love with Iris and Lily's. Have many new rhizomes planted in the fall including reds and red browns. I would love to find Diamond Dusted to add to my collections. I am loving the browns and beige Iris and would also like to add those. The weather today is still to cold and covered with light snow.(another inch on 5 inches) very cold, single degrees. I have several re blooming iris that have rebloomed for 3 years here in the Ohio river valley.

Good to hear from you. Irises here are a great chat.