Have any of you grown either of these? Thoughts?
"Art's Pride" & Mango Meadowbright"
I'd throw my money in the trash before I bought one of these. They aren't reliable garden plants.
This message was edited Jun 1, 2009 8:50 PM
lol
Thanks ;)
I haven't grown Meadowbrite Orange but I have grown successfully Mango Meadowbrite.....I love the color and l love the way the separation of the petals from the cone looks and the amount of reflex, just seems like a beautiful plant to me when its happy and grown well......It came back 2 years in a row and I lost them along with all of my coneflowers the following year but not to anything that was lacking or wrong with the plants themselves but a disease called Aster Yellows.
I'm hearing so many people having problems with Aster Yellows. It's starting to make me want to grow something else. I wonder if having two different flower beds of Echinaceas separated from each other is a good idea. If one gets the disease you might be able to save the other plants, especially if I can take divisions of my expensive ones!
Paul -
How did you first realize you had Aster Yellows? wshat did you first see?
The disease is spread by leaf hoppers so if you got the leaf hoppers in the area I don't think different flowers beds would make real difference in the chances of you getting the virus in one bed as opposed to another if they are in the same yard of average size.
KnittyNatty, usually as least for me was the appearance of 'witches brooms' on the coneheads....there are other symptoms like 'veining' but I'll give you a couple of sites to read for yourself as your symptoms might vary from mine....but aster yellows is an awful thing for sure as there is no remedy after your flowers get it....
http://www.oznet.ksu.edu/library/hort2/mf1086.pdf
http://urbanext.illinois.edu/focus/per_echinacea.html
http://www.mobot.org/gardeninghelp/plantfinder/IPM.asp?code=138&group=67&level=s
Hope this helps you and I hope you never see it in your yard.....
One other thing that is covered in one of the sites I gave you but wanted to bring to your attention anyways...there are some symptoms of aster yellows that are similar to eriophyid mite damage like witches brooms but from what I've learned and heard the majority of the time witches brooms are aster yellows.....also if it'll help Kevin Ong the Director of the Texas Plant Disease Diagnostic Laboratory sent me this information and I'm sure he wouldn't mind me sharing it with you, here it is:
Aster yellow are no fun! It is caused by a PHYTOPLASMA. This is not a fungus or a bacteria, but something totally different. The phytoplasma that causes Aster yellows is transmitted by insects (leafhopper). It is very difficult to control aster yellows, but not impossible. You would have to use multiple strategies - managing insect, getting rid of other host plants (aka some weeds are able to host the phytoplasma), constant monitoring and aggressive action when detected.
I have included a link to a Kansas State Extension document which provide a pretty extensive description of the the disease and host, and some practical management methods.
http://www.oznet.ksu.edu/library/hort2/mf1086.pdf
Be aware that you cannot control host that are beyond your garden (property) and you cannot control the movement of the insext.
My suggestion, if you are bent on planting asters, is to:
0. Get rid of potential reservior of phytoplasma (other host especially weedy host).
1. Set up insect traps at perimeter of garden and bed (these are those sticky traps - blue and yellow).
2. Learn what the aster leafhopper is suppose to look like. and monitor the traps vigilantly.
3. When see influx of leafhopper (via trap), begin to treat plant with insecticide for the leaf hopper.
4. Monitor plant vigilantly.
5. If see symptoms of yellows (early symptoms is vein clearing), ROUGE (get rid of) that plant.
6. Continue to manage for insect.
This is not a guarantee that your garden will be free of yellows, but hopefully it will tip the balance in favor toward you.
One other note: If you noticed previously that 100% of your plants begin to show symptoms at the same time, I would suggest that you might want to check to make sure that there is no misapplication of herbicide or some chemical drift causing the symptoms that mimic aster yellows.
IF there is ever a question about diagnosis, it is best to submit a sample to the plant diagnostic lab for ananlysis.