Ah....those dastardly critters uprooting my irises....but this time, it was a good thing.

Several weeks ago, one of the noids my friend from church gave me was uprooted, and it had two increases. Well, now it is been uprooted again, but it is a good thing. The moment I lifted the iris up, the long rhizome split into three segments from rot. Where there two increases were, had been rotted off and pulled off when the critter uprooted it. The front of the rhizome was an empty shell.

Here's what it looked like. An odd...mucus green colour!

This was the tip of the rhizome. I was mistaken, the middle bit with the increases was completely rotted away. This piece is definitely not going to be saved...

Now, it is a fight against whatever this rot/disease is for the fan and the two other increases I found. There's still gunk, and it is a horribly small rhizome!

I *might* be able to save the last little bit of this rhizome and its increases, but the issue is, we've got no bleach.

Are there any other non-harming things I can do to the rest of the rhizome since we do not have bleach? I want to save the rhizome of course, but I am not sure if I can. What does this look like to you? I did not notice if there were borer holes. I may also have to treat the area where the iris was, because it is quite close to other irises - and my noid that has exploded the day it got here; seven increases. I don't want to lose that one particularly.

Monty I would wash it under a stream of water using my fingers to feel for any soft areas and removing them. Then I would let it dry for a day or two before replanting. The bacteria that causes a lot of the common rot is in all garden soil.

When you get a chance pick up a container of Comet. You can find it in all stores that sell any kind of kitchen cleaners. You can sprinkle it on the rhizome before planting.

Remember when using bleach that it kills good as well as bad things in your soil. I have washed rhizomes in a mixture of ten percent bleach to ninety percent water but I do not pour it into my soil.

Every gardener has to find his or her own way and this will be your first skirmish against threats to your irises. Good luck.

If you don't have Comet, remove all soft spots as Bonnie described, rinse in hydrogen peroxide, then let them dry a few days before planting, (recheck for soft spots) and don't bury them.

I did as you both suggested. I did not try the stub with the green gunk coming out of it, but the one with the increases I did. I sprayed the rhizome right where the issues were, and it immediately burst into bubbles. Whatever's in there, I hope the peroxide kills the bad.

I've got some fall beauty to share!


Kind Candace is still fine - she is slowly getting there!

Beautiful fall colors Monty!

Me too!

In regard to someone's comment about using strips of plastic garden pots, one person in our iris society uses the black ones and writes on it with a white paint pen. I guess it would work as the ones I have gotten from her do not fade or rub off of the black plastic pots.
I wish you luck, Monty, with all of your carefully planned beds of irises. You will love it in the spring when they bloom. Your enthusiasm is wonderful!

Jane - I will have to purchase a white paint pen from Walmart or some place in a few days. I am going to a friend's house tomorrow for several days to take care of her chickens, goats and cat. (The same friend I did for two days in September). My enthusiasm is great, my dedication needs to increase a bit.
Thanks for the comment, Jane!

Lots to discuss....today. On topic with ID-ing irises, I've been taking snapshots of the various clumps, and going into an editor, and very makeshiftidly slapping in names of the irises or plants in the photo. It's not pretty, but it would certainly be a way for me to keep an extra bunch of photos for ID purposes.
Sample


I've discovered that I have a second rebloomer sending up a stalk. Bernice Miller's introduction, Deborah Dances, is sending me up a stalk, along with the previously mentioned.
Top is Kind Candace today, and the bottom is Deborah Dances.



The little noid my friend gave me with the rot issue, I checked today (it has been inside since I treated it on Saturday), and it is now rock hard, when it was not so a couple days ago. Is this good?


The last thing I want to discuss is......we have had some recent acquisitions!
We've gotten four baby chickens, a baby duck and three slightly older chickens. Seven chickens and a baby duck! I don't have pictures right yet, but that is in due time!

I am looking forward to seeing some photos of your duck and chickens

Here they are! Older three here.


Younger four and the baby duck. It's hard to see, but there's three black chicks, a white one and a gray duckling. Hearing all those chirps when we were headed home was a joyous occasion!


A lot of these chickies will be named eventually...

It's been a decent day, but also a sad one. To my surprise, I came home from my pet sitting venture, to nine more new baby chickies added to the flock.

Well, today, two of our Lavender Orpingtons passed on. The first, my mom found her buried beneath some wood shavings, and the other wasn't doing swell. She looked online for options to help a poorly chick regain some health, but sadly, she did pass away too.

We have a third Orpington, and she looks perfectly content, but we're not so sure if that will last. Both of the Lavenders who passed on, we have no idea why they passed away. We're thinking from the place we got them (Rural King - basically, a farmer's Walmart), the shipment brought it may have been diseased. If that is the case, then we might lose the third Orpington.

Do y'all chickie lovers have any ideas on what we can do for this third and our last Orpington? She seems to be completely fine right now. We're thinking about returning the dead chicks and perhaps have some replacements, but it is still sad to lose a chick or two, especially because these two girls were super duper cute.

When I had chickens I found a super aracauna chicken chat site. The people there knew their chickens, and saved mine a couple of times. One lady in Canada had a rooster, very appropriately named Methuselah, that lived over 20 years.
I had a chicken with a deep cough, and a sulfa drug from the feed store that they had recommended cured him. Another time little red mites were sucking the blood so bad that I lost a setting hen before I realized the whole chicken house was infested. They recommended dusting all the chickens with Sevin Dust, and no more chickens died after that. You may want to try looking for some real chicken experts.

So sorry for you loss, Monty. I hate it when animals die.

Sorry to hear you lost 2 chickens Monty. I hope the third one is Ok.

Monty ~ How is your third chicken doing?

The third chick seems to be doing very well. She was always the most fiesty of the lavenders we got.

Well, despite better judgement, we went back to Rural King in hopes to replace the two lavenders we lost...but there were three left and I couldn't leave the third one behind. So....now we have four lavender Orpingtons, and we also got a Penedesenca chicken. Both are considered rare varieties. Cool!

In total, we have 19 birds, one of which being a baby duck, who we've named "Quakerjack." Four Lavender Orpingtons, three Rhode Island reds, three possible Asian Blue chicks, a Delaware and one Sapphire Gem chicken. Two chicks I forget the breed of, and there are four others we don't know the breed of.

Lots of little chickies and a few older ones! It is so awesome being able to pick up the little chicks and holding and loving them....might as well use that time while they are small! I'll keep you all updated on the chicks, and Quackerjack.

Quackerjack!! Great name!

Monty ~ Are you going to have a lot of different colored eggs? Yes, "Quackerjack" is a great name for a duck!