Galanthus March 2008

[mark smyth]

some people recommend a 24 hour soak leaves too

[ArneM]

Thank you for these information

[carolesmith]

Maggi I did appreciate the joke, honest.

Mark the Spring Thing is Saturday 15th, I have been making soup for the traders today (it will be passed to Sarah and frozen).  However, I am going to Blackpool hopefully in time to hear Ian on Thursday and for the show on Saturday.  It also means I can stay with no. 1 son and hopefully get some instruction on how to post photographs etc.

[ArneM]

Is there a list with all virus-infected snowdrops?

[Maggi Young]

Maggi I did appreciate the joke, honest.

Kind of you to cheer me up by saying so Carole!
You must introduce yourself to Ian, so he can put a face to a forumist.

[Alan_b]

I am having a hard time figuring out what Stagonospora actually DOES? 

Okay, the leaves look a bit manky so presumably there is less good leaf left to photosynthesise and the bulbs do not bulk up so well.  Therfore I can see that it might cause snowdrops to diminish over several seasons.  However, in the account by Matt Bishop in the Daffodils Yearbook, it seems that the disease spread to and killed many of his bulbs between the end of the snowdrop season and June of that same year when he dug them up.  Apparantly the bulbs had rotted.

I cannot work out how die-back in leaves relates to rot in bulbs.  If you dig up a snowdrop where the leaves show signs of stagonospora will you inveviatbly find that the bulb is rotting?  Which comes first?       

[mark smyth]

Just now you may see red stains and streaks on the bulbs as you see on Hippeastrums.

[Martin Baxendale]

I am having a hard time figuring out what Stagonospora actually DOES?  Okay, the leaves look a bit manky so presumably there is less good leaf left to photosynthesise and the bulbs do not bulk up so well.  Therfore I can see that it might cause snowdrops to diminish over several seasons.  However, in the account by Matt Bishop in the Daffodils Yearbook, it seems that the disease spread to and killed many of his bulbs between the end of the snowdrop season and June of that same year when he dug them up.  Apparantly the bulbs had rotted.
I cannot work out how die-back in leaves relates to rot in bulbs.  If you dig up a snowdrop where the leaves show signs of stagonospora will you inveviatbly find that the bulb is rotting?  Which comes first?       

Alan, the fungus infects the whole plant, leaves, flowers and bulb. The symptoms first show on the leaves, but it's not simply a case of the leaves alone being affected - at the same time the fungus is at work in the bulb, destroying areas of the bulb scales, just as it destroys areas of the leaves. So it's not simply a case of damaged leaves reducing the snowdrop's ability to photosynthesise. The whole plant is being necrotised.

The first year that the disease shows is when the leaf symptoms appear (concurrent with some bulb damage - showing as reddish staining and rotting of outer scales) followed in the second year by worse leaf symptoms, flowers also turning brown and/ or failing to emerge from the spathe, further bulb scale rotting, and third year usually total bulb death (or almost total, with no leaf growth). Sometimes it can be faster, especially in very wet soil or a very wet summer, as in Matt's case.

[Maggi Young]

The stagonospora curtisii fungus spores are carried in the air, too, so physical removal of affected plants is not necessarily a permanent cure.

[Alan_b]

I am having a hard time figuring out what Stagonospora actually DOES?  Okay, the leaves look a bit manky so presumably there is less good leaf left to photosynthesise and the bulbs do not bulk up so well.  Therfore I can see that it might cause snowdrops to diminish over several seasons.  However, in the account by Matt Bishop in the Daffodils Yearbook, it seems that the disease spread to and killed many of his bulbs between the end of the snowdrop season and June of that same year when he dug them up.  Apparantly the bulbs had rotted.
I cannot work out how die-back in leaves relates to rot in bulbs.  If you dig up a snowdrop where the leaves show signs of stagonospora will you inveviatbly find that the bulb is rotting?  Which comes first?       

Alan, the fungus infects the whole plant, leaves, flowers and bulb. The symptoms first show on the leaves, but it's not simply a case of the leaves alone being affected - at the same time the fungus is at work in the bulb, destroying areas of the bulb scales, just as it destroys areas of the leaves. So it's not simply a case of damaged leaves reducing the snowdrop's ability to photosynthesise. The whole plant is being necrotised.

The first year that the disease shows is when the leaf symptoms appear (concurrent with some bulb damage - showing as reddish staining and rotting of outer scales) followed in the second year by worse leaf symptoms, flowers also turning brown and/ or failing to emerge from the spathe, further bulb scale rotting, and third year usually total bulb death (or almost total, with no leaf growth). Sometimes it can be faster, especially in very wet soil or a very wet summer, as in Matt's case.

This paints a very gloomy picture should my snowdrops ever succumb to Stagonospora, particularly as I have no access to Carbendazim without trying to pass myself off as a nurseryman!  What stops "wild" populations of snowdrops being decimated by a disease like this?  Or does some small percentage of snowdrops have a natural immunity, thereby enabling a wild population to regenerate over a period of time?   

[mark smyth]

Brian I think the problem is the swapping and buying that goes on. You dont know who the suppliers are buying from. In a stable wild population I guess those that get it die and that's it. Also in the wild you dont see the clumps that grow in gardens. I'll send you some carbendazim when mine arrives with me. Must make a phone call tonight

[Paddy Tobin]

This seems a sad end to the snowdrop season. There are very few snowdrops still in flower in my garden. There are very few photographs of snowdrops being posted on the forum and we are left to discuss disease and death. Oh, too sad.

I suppose I can console  myself that there are still some snowdrops to arrive in the post and I am off to collect a nice clump on Saturday - an Irish cultivar that I wish to build up in numbers.

Paddy

[Maggi Young]

Don't be sad, Paddy; there are still lots of snowies looking nice here in Aberdeen gardens..... though not many of the fancy varieties favoured by the fevered..... good honest snowies... looking white and pure and lovely 

[Paddy Tobin]

Ah, the joys of the cold north!

Paddy

[Brian Ellis]

As some of you know there has been some discussion on leaves of new purchases being virused.  Tonight we went to a most entertaining talk by Ben Potterton on woodland plants, even more entertaining as his powerpoint presentation didn't work so he ad libbed for an hour...he could talk the hind legs off a donkey.  I digress, I was hoping to see either Richard Hobbs, Ann Borrill or both and took along a Galanthus Trymlet recently arrived, the foliage of which I was not particularly happy with.  Unfortunately they were not there, but John Foster was - Galanthus Gala devotees have visited his garden in the past.  He does a lot of twin-scaling and his opinion was that it is a third year twin-scale whose bulb hasn't enough energy to support the plant.  He said take the seed pods off and feed, keep it in a pot for the next year (away from the rest just in case) and look after it.  He had the same symptoms with a G. Florence Baker last year and this year it is in the best of health.  I think that this is the most reassuring answer I have had as (knowing the original grower) I could not believe that virus stock was being sent out.  

I hope that brings a crumb of comfort to at least two people I have been in touch with