Dactylorhiza - I fear the worst

[Graham Catlow]

Hi,
The first image looks great but what lies beneath?

This situation is all over the garden (I have a lot of Dacts) not just isolated. What do I do

[Maggi Young]

Oh my goodness, that's a nightmare Graham  -  I've heard that others are seeing it again in their gardens. There's a discussion of it here :
http://www.srgc.net/forum/index.php?topic=566.0 which includes a link to a Journal article the Wilson's wrote about it.

We'd advise you  to dig them up now, take off the new tubers which  should still be clean - pot them up in clean compost and keep them in quarantine and BURN the rest.
Fungicdes have little effect it seems. 

[Graham Catlow]

Thanks Maggi.
I must have a hundred plants in various pars of the garden. What a task
Is it a specific Dactylorhiza fungus or are my Pleiones and Cypripediums at risk also. That would be a greater disaster than the Dacts.

[Maggi Young]

I cannot say for sure, Graham - others will know more - but we think it's just affects Dacts.

[Graham Catlow]

I hope so!
Thanks again.

[gregork]

They are so beautiful! I am so sory this happened to you :S
I hope you get rid of this nasty thing! fingers crossed

regards
G

[Tony Willis]

Graham

I have had a very bad outbreak of this disease in the past and see it has appeared again this year.

I tried taking off the new tubers but this proved no good and also doused them in every available fungicide,they are already infected and only prolongs the agony for another couple of years.

It wiped out my total collection all of known provenance.

The only positive side is that seedlings seem to spring up all over the garden and will recolonise.

[SteveC2]

I am in the process of losing most of my dact collection also.  The best were stolen during the winter, the rest have been battered by the weather.  I think that it is the physical damage that lets the fungus, if that is what it is, into the plant.  When I only had a few I grew them in pots, protected in a greenhouse and never experienced anything like this.  It is only since my collection increased and I started to grow them outside, exposed to the elements that such problems started.  I have inspected some of the new tubers and they are still small, some black, so I will destroy the lot.
I had decided to give up on dacts altogether, then went to the Malvern International Orchid Show last week and wound up coming back with some newbies.  They are now being quarantined, for their own protection.
Unlike Tony I have no hope of seedlings in the garden.  The soil must simply be too dry, stony and devoid of the necessary fungus for I have never had a single plant appear in over twenty years of growing dacts.  They appear in other pots, but never in the ground!

[ChrisB]

Do you think there's something amiss this year?  It's started to take mine too... I just lost my beloved  fuchsii, it's been wonderful, came up looking super in the spring and now it's gone.  I've cut it down and hoped it might recover from underground.  In other containers elsewhere in the garden they still look unaffected so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.  Nightmare...

[SteveC2]

In Lincolnshire at least, we had a ridiculously early spring which prompted growth, no late frosts worthy of mention, but alternating high temps and monsoons throughout late  May and into June, with more rain in a couple of weeks than throughout the winter.  My bigger, leafier plants were left looking like they had been through a grinder.  They are the ones which have suffered.  Smaller plants seem fine.  My newbies will definitely be getting some form of protection next year, similar to my cyps.

[Graham Catlow]

Your responses are just confirming my worst fears - hence the title of the thread.

I will do everything I can to see if I can bring at least some of them through it.

I always cut the spent flower heads off so no chance of seedlings

Graham

[mark smyth]

I've been hit also. I also agree it is weather related ie battered stems and leaves lets in the fungus. My variegated fuchsia got it last year and failed to come up this year. I bulked them to 4. I should have let two go for security.

So far is doesn't affect the southern marsh orchid

[jomowi]

Graham and others, I do feel for you with this awful disease.  As a crumb of comfort, Dac. 'Harold Esslemont' has a high resistance to Cladosporium orchidis. I would suggest however, that you get rid of as much of your diseased stock as possible and don't be in too much of a hurry before planting again. Dac. 'Harold Esslemont' is a robust plant and a good 'doer'.  We were given a single tuber of the then un-named hybrid by a mutual friend of Harold's.  We eventually sent tubers to the late Kath Dryden who named it after Harold and put it up to Joint Rock where it was awarded an A.M.  It is available from some nurseries, but is still very expensive. 

[Graham Catlow]

Hi Maureen,
I have Harold Esslemont which originated in your garden from Bill and Helen. It is a couple of meters away from the others and as yet is unaffected. It will be interesting to see how it goes.

[Roma]

I had a few affected last year and more this year.  Some have gone completely.  'Harold Esslemont'  which I bought two years ago is still looking fine.  I thought Dactylorhiza purpurella was immune but it is not. 
These two appear to be afflicted with something different.