Bulb Information, Diseases and Pests, Growing Daffodils

identifying disease in bulbs and any result ofRoundup?

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Mary Lou, I don’t usually have problems with mites, but if I do, I clean the bulbs really well and dust them with Sevin.  What is more problematic for me, though not this season, is mealy bug… nothing worse than finding mealy bugs camping out in the crates over summer, nestled down in the bulb necks and under the tunics.  Three or four years ago they were horrible.  For the mealies, removing all loose tunics and giving them a dip in a neem-based insecticidal soap bath works wonders.

 For all bulbs, I dip them in a 10% chlorine solution upon digging. I am inclined to believe, as a secondary effect, that the chlorine keeps the insects and mites at bay… on years that I haven’t dipped, I’ve had problems, with mealies in particular.  Perhaps I should do some control bulbs next year and see.  I realize chlorine is not an insecticide, but its use seems to coincide with no insect infestations.  I take that back: crickets do get into the bulbs in late October and start eating the basal plates, but for lineouts and replants, it makes no difference.

 Jason

8 comments for “identifying disease in bulbs and any result ofRoundup?”

  1. Mary Lou,

    I failed to mention, another very important control method for insect and mite infestation, for me, is to keep the bulbs in summer storage packed loosely in their bags and keep the bags generously spaced apart, not touching.  When I store them in the summer, in mesh bags separated out in black plastic bulb crates, I don’t let different varieties come into contact with one other (which requires several hundred crates, unfortunately).  Bags of bulbs touching one another makes for easy transference of insects and mites.  Not that my method is fool proof—insects and mites can of course crawl from one bag to another—but I feel it helps.  Hanging the bags from racks or rafters also works, but it’s havoc on the mesh bags which easily snag and tear. 

    Do others have solutions to this problem they wish to share?  It’s certainly an issue when storing bulbs, and the more suggestions we could get on this topic, the better. 

    Jason

  2. Jason, thanks for both  your replies.  I’ve printed them out for future reference.  I did give some few bulbs a Clorox bath–some that showed a hint of basal rot or were part of a clump which had some infectead bulbs.  I peeled off the outer scales that showed the first signs.  Probably let them soak too long. Spring will tell…
    Mary Lou

  3. Don’t let them soak too long… I dip for about one minute a bag, generously sloshing or agitating so that the solution is moving around through the bulbs; afterward, they air dry. First year I did this (many years ago) I let them soak for up to 20 minutes per bag… it didn’t kill the bulbs, but it sure did affect their flowers the next year—completely floral loss or horrifically distorted, freak-show flowers (quite unlike the ones I try am breeding today, Owen Davies, thank you very much!  J ).  The excessive soak did produce lush foliage, though.  And, oddly, those that had showed virus previous to their digging and dipping didn’t show it again…

     

  4. Jason and All,

    At the risk of being boring, as I seem to put this up every 3 years or so, when it comes to bulb scale mite, 3 seconds in the microwave on full power will kill em dead, before planting and will not harm the bulb.

    Ian

  5. Oh god, this is what I’ve been doing wrong.  I thought the deformed blooms were the result of using water that was too hot for my fungicide soak.  This year I just bleached everything in cold water but since I let them soak for at least 15 minutes (overnight for one poor forgotten batch) I guess I can look forward to the same problem next year.  All my bulbs have recovered well and given very good bloom the next year, though, so it’s not a permanent problem.

    Kathleen Simpson

  6. So how do you know you even have bulb mites, until you’re left with a bunch of dry shells?
    Mary Lou

  7. Mary Lou,
    After you’ve cleaned a lot of bulbs and itch all over!!! :-) or look for lines of ‘stitchwork’ on the bulbs after you remove a  few loose outer scales and then check a scraping in the microscope – easily seen little beggars and slowly mobile!! They like heat  – so not too much of a problem here, but we do get’em and I hate’em! so I HWT’em.
    Brian

  8. Aha!  They like heat!  That explains why there seems to be so much more damage than in other years, since it was terribly hot here in July.  I’ll have to pay attention to the itching!  :-)
    Mary Lou

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