Brad, I read someplace that full strength " Listerine", in a spray bottle make a good treatment for soft rot. Never tried it, so I can't attest to it, but it sounds logical.....Arlyn

Am I misremembering -- hasn't someone recommended Comet cleanser for soft rot?

Tom and Brad -- I'm really sorry to hear about your Irises. This is just heart-breaking.

Yes...I use Comet Cleanser for soft rot....the rot that stinks. Is that the rot everyone is experiencing?

I think anything that has anti bacterial properties might work, like bleach or Listerine, as I think it's a bacterial mold. If Comet contains bleach, then it could work, but I've never tried it. I think I've heard others mention it though.

The rot I am experiencing has no smell at the present time. This is not the normal time for rot from my past experience; so this may be a different type. same results though.

Aryln Thanks Ill try some tomorrow and we will see what happens I have plenty to experiment with this year.

Paul I think that is what is going on but the rot does not have that distinctive smell so not sure what exactly it is, the few I have had with soft rot normally occurred after the plant started growing in late spring and it is not the case this time. I have not tried the comet cleaner yet, I thought I had it under control by cleaning the rot out of the bulb and getting good air circulation but with the frost still coming out of the ground and rain can't get them dry long enough to stop it and it seems to be getting worse. I tried spraying a hundred or so with a 10% bleach solution today and I will try your comet cleanser on some tomorrow and give it a little time to work but with our forecast for more rain, thinking I may have to wave the white flag this year and dig most of my gardens to save the plants, the main bulb is rotting and for the past couple weeks the side growth has not been affected but after pulling a few today it is worse than I thought and if I don't cut the rot out I may not be able to save the side growth on them and then it's not just the bloom for the year but the whole plant the way it looks today a good majority won't bloom anyway Definitely Frustrating !!! This is new territory for me I have never seen anything like it have heard horror stories about rot but never experienced it to this extent, I wish I could say it is only affecting certain bulbs but it seems to be in just about everything.

I have 2 more losses, so now my lost list looks this:

"Mesmerizer", "Wonderful News", "Tink", "Micro Burst", "Anvil of Darkness", "Rock and Roll Girl", "King of the Road" and "Kathleen Kay Nelson".

It's horrible to hear of everyone's losses.

The mold here doesn't have that same smell like the rot I've seen in the summer, but it looks the same. I wonder if the smell is absent due to the cold freezing nights? I checked some of the plants in my newest beds, and it hasn't seemed to affect them yet. I'll clean them tomorrow, and know for sure. We have two days of high winds coming, then two days of rain, followed by one day of snow. Ugh, will spring ever really get here?

I think they are two, separate kinds of rot, Tom. I quite often have rot in the early spring in the rebloomer bed...no smell, just soft and gooey.....on the rhizomes that tried to bloom and froze out the fall before. Sometimes also on "regular" iris ....just the "mother" rhizome, not the side increases....with the "larger" rhizomes being the worst. I think they are too large to just "dry up", so they sort of have to rot away. I'm sure that some kind of bacteria is involved, but it's not the same one that causes "bacterial soft rot", or so it seems to me. THAT stuff stinks ! You can usually smell it just walking through the beds. When I've had that, it's always been later in the spring, about the start of bloom, and seems to start at the point the stalk is rising from the rhizome. If I were you, I'd dig one of the affected plants, and see if the increases are growing new roots. If so, I'd tend not to worry too much about the mother rotting away, although you might want to scrape as much of it as possible away, as that would "dry things up" a little quicker. I feel bad for you folks that are having trouble so early, but I think you will find it's not as bad as you think. Hopefully, last years increases are far enough along to " carry on with some bloom".....Arlyn

I agree with your line of thought on the rot issue Arlyn. I have only lost two plants, but the blooms from 25 or so. They were medium to larger rhizomes with multiple increases; some with many increases. All of the babies have well defined roots and the major area was in my re-bloomer bed/micro-clim area.

I have had a chance to go over other areas and I have much less or no rot going on. I had rot in brand new beds or in the micr-clim/re-bloomer beds for the most part only. The two year bed (ie second bloom year coming up) will be spectacular based on the increases and the size there in.

Brad -- if I lived nearby, I'd come and help you dig your Irises. It's killing me that you have such a serious problem on your hands. You -- of all people -- with such beautiful beds.

Greg -- I'm glad to hear that your other Irises look to be in good shape. Looks like you're the exception to the rule, this year.

I think it's just the large rhizome in each case that's affected, any increases seem OK, but doubt if they will be large enough to bloom. Just finished picking up branches from the yard,and now I'm going to clean my new bed and see if there is any damage there.

Ya never know, Tom -- I've had some awfully scrawny little rhizomes go ahead and produce a bloom stalk!! Then I've had big, lush rhizomes just sit there and not. Go figure.............

Has been raining heavily the last day, now it is sleeting which just turned to snow! Cooped up in the house all weekend.

Man, it sure felt good to be digging in the dirt! I cleaned out the new bed and the other long bed on the other side of the drive way. I found that Shadow of the night is nearly dead, might still live, but very iffy, then I found a couple that have lost the main rhizome, but have live increases, so they won't bloom this year, but should live to bloom another year, they are Midnight Passion, and Cotillion Gown. One of the two rhizomes of Lunch In Madrid is like that too. The other one seems OK. The older bed had no problems at all at this time. Hopefully the wet weather on the way won't affect it. That makes 7 beds down, and 4 more to go, but they are the bigger beds. It's supposed to be warm tomorrow, but really windy, so we'll see if I can clean out some more. I did poke around a bit in my biggest bed and found that I lost Well Endowed all together. There were several rhizomes of it, and they are all rotted away and soft. I think that bed will have the most losses I'm afraid.

Most of my losses have no increases, nor any new roots. They were spongy like to the touch... They were planted last year and guess they just didn't take. New ones planted to the left and right of them are doing just fine. Maybe that long spell of freezing weather* we had here got them before they got established?

A couple of the losses I still have my fingers crossed on. They put out some increases, but the slugs ate those down to nothing. I will be digging those up today and putting them in pots to baby them.

I got hit real hard this year with garden pests and critters.

*freezing to us on the West Coast lol

Garden pests and critters were the worse in the summer of 2013 that I have ever seen. Everything chewed on anything green. Grasshoppers, sometimes four different species at the same time, would be notching the edges of iris leaves when I would be weeding. I resorted to comet sprinkled on them every day. This kept them from being eaten by bugs and even the rabbits stopped eating my other plants when I sprinkled comet on them. I don't know if it was the bleach in the comet or the grit or both. Everything had white powder on it but for a buck a can it was the best deterrent without killing critters. I have about decided that I may have to resort to killing critters if it comes down to them or my irises.

Yep!!

I have only skimmed this thread, so pardon me if I missed something crucial. I just want to hurry to suggest that this is probably a different culprit than the soft rot that typically accompanies warm wet weather and that has the distinctive stench (the one I associate with rotten potatoes--but I'm from Idaho originally). Anyway, what folks are describing here sounds like what I complained about a week or so ago and that seemed to me, from a bit of interweb research, to be botrytis, which is fungal, and if I read correctly, it's typically a cold-season problem. I've dug up a couple of the worst-affected rhizomes, and on a couple of them the mold was apparent around the new increases. The mother rhizomes had become corky. That first day I suspected fungus I bought three different antifungals and sprayed one on all of my irises, since mold spores spread easily. Then I used one of the different antifungals to spray them again yesterday, which I think might have been a day or two earlier than the time recommended (10 days), but Saturday's really the only day I have and I didn't want to wait a whole week. Still too early to be sure of the results, but I'm hopeful that the ones I didn't have to dig completely will pull through. Anyway, if you suspect botrytis, I'd recommend doing some reading about it and acting quickly. Good luck to everyone.

Brett.....I think you may be correct. I had it on 2-3 plants a few years ago. I cleaned out the corky spots and drenched with a mix of water and Bayer 3in1. Seemed to take care of the problem. Often with botrytis there are little black growths about the size of BB's among the roots.....