Burning Siberian Iris foliage?

Just read this in a book about irises and borer damage. SI's can be infested with borers also, and one way to get rid of / prevent / is to burn the foliage on the plant on a dry day in Jan. or Feb. Anyone heard of this? Guess you can do this because the rhizomes are planted deeper than the TB rhizomes?

Sharon,

I don't think it's as common as on the Bearded Iris.

Have your Siberians had any damage so far?

I grow many Siberians, and they have very little damage of any sort. If their leaves look healthy, I wouldn't worry. I leave the leaves on all winter, and cut them off early spring, just as the new leaves start to come up. I've grown Siberians out in the field for resale for over 20 years.

Can you even get out to burn their leaves in January or February? We usually have 6 feet of snow then!

I know you're probably a little jumpy as you had the problem with the Bearded, but I don't think the Siberians normally have as bad a problem.

Maybe someone else has had more experience with borers in Siberians.

Polly

Siberians and the 6'' border iris are the only ones I don't find borers in, so maybe you're spared too!

I've not heard of burning on the plant.

I tried burning the irises. You use a small propane torch, like the ones you use to remove paint. The process is to burn off all the debris that you would normally clean up as well as killing and unhatched eggs and hatched larve.

Personally, throwing them out with the trash works for me and I've learned to id the signs of early borers and it makes it easy to get rid of them. I'm the only house on the block with any irises so when I get them under control, it's a piece of cake.

I've burnt sibs with a propane torch a couple of times. Works well but haven't since I moved into the city. Neighbours already think I'm crazy.

inanda

I know several people here in the Minneapolis area that burn their sibs. But its not for borer problems. It's just easier to clean them up in the spring. They don't burn in winter, rather, early spring.

LOL, as for the crazy factor, I've long past that line. But neighbors still accept me, because of the "cool" plants I grow.

No, I haven't had any problems with them yet, I was just trying to get ahead of the game what with all of my iris borer problems!

Borer will attack Siberian iris just like they attack beardeds. And borer will attack Louisianas and Pardencandas too! But the rhizomes on a siberian are much smaller and denser, so I think it is more difficult to see borer damage, and extremely difficult to eradicate them when Siberians become infested. Presby had an AWFUL borer infestation in their Siberians back in the late 90's and it was so bad that many thousands of Siberians had to be destroyed because the infestation could not be controlled. I would think that the borer would prefer the juicier bearded rhizome, but you just never know when the buggers will develop a taste for some 'asian' food.
Laetitia