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So you think the article is an overreaction? I don't. One grower's plants, shipped all over the country, is very very bad. That's how oak wilt spread all over the country.
Extension offices distrribute this information to alert people to any disease that might spread to an entire crop, be it ornamental or edible. I am sharing it here.
I don't think it is anything to dwell on. It IS just one grower, and they are correcting it at the source.
I agree that "One grower's plants, shipped all over the country, is very very bad." But that article does not say if ANY were shipped, yet alone spread throughout the country.
Wow. Really, you think that is all that means? One grower had a little ol' mildew problem? Then by all means go buy some for yourself and ignore the silly people.
I'm sure Tina was trying to bring up the subject assuming many active gardeners have already heard of the disease and might not be aware of how far it has spread. We've been trying to warn people here because the "box stores" have been demanding their growers grow it anyway increasing the risk of the disease contaminating more greenhouses. While doing a road trip we visited just visited a greenhouse like that today. They will lose a contract for all there plants if she doesn't. So she is spraying fungicides continually in hopes of staving off the problem.
For those who might actually be wondering what the outbreak is about.... This downy mildew is specific to one kind of impatiens but it happens to be one of the most grown and bought plants in US nurseries. It's been big news for a couple of years and they haven't been able to stop the spread. They are discussing it because in spite of quarantines and destruction of whole green houses worth of plants (as they were describing in the article) this has spread to nearly half of the USA. It also has spread in Europe where it was seen about 8 or so years ago.
There is no cure and standard prevention has not slowed the spread although fungicides seem to keep it at bay for a short time in some cases. You can go and buy what looks like a fully healthy set of plants, flat or basket of them and within weeks have rotting plants. All parts of the plants get the mold and there are no resistant varieties or treatments yet available for it once the plant has even a single speck of mold. If you have already bought impatiens watch them carefully and do not compost any plant parts if your impatiens show signs of disease and dig out the soil all around anything that was infected.
Its best to not even plant them and go with something else this year and next. Locally we have been recommending planting begonias and coleus for the gardener looking for color in dappled shade areas and to avoid any regular impatiens and their native cousin sometimes called "Jewelweed".
New Guinea Impatens and SunPatiens seem to be immune if anyone has bought those and is concerned.
Just so you can see this is not only <one grower somewhere in Kansas> try any of the links for some of the various states that have infections (I did not include west coast states but all 3 CA,OR and WA have problems)
Wow. Really, you think that is all that means? One grower had a little ol' mildew problem?
Excuse me, but that is all that her link said... a grower. So yes, that is all I thought it meant, because that is all that article said.
Quote:
Originally Posted by J&Em
I'm sure Tina was trying to bring up the subject assuming many active gardeners have already heard of the disease and might not be aware of how far it has spread.
My mind reading skills are not as good as yours. I commented on one article, assuming nothing else. That article said nothing of how far it has spread.
I'm just having a hard time getting my head around the fact that I posted a caution about a plant disease on this forum and it created a kerfuffle. All I was doing was posting a link to a blog post by someone at K-State Extension. Our hotline phones have been ringing off the hook with people asking about this. I still think it was worth sharing.
I'm just having a hard time getting my head around the fact that I posted a caution about a plant disease on this forum and it created a kerfuffle. All I was doing was posting a link to a blog post by someone at K-State Extension. Our hotline phones have been ringing off the hook with people asking about this. I still think it was worth sharing.
HeHeHe
Dontchaknow you gotta check in with PC first. Your lack of experience is so obvious.
I had a sod grower get hit by cut worms. I noticed it a week after they installed about 20,000 sqft for me on a new housing development. They ended up having to spray about 500,000 sqft on shipments over the previous month as well as remove and replace about 100,000 because it wasn't caught in time.
I don't think it is anything to dwell on. It IS just one grower, and they are correcting it at the source.
I agree that "One grower's plants, shipped all over the country, is very very bad." But that article does not say if ANY were shipped, yet alone spread throughout the country.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Pitt Chick
Excuse me, but that is all that her link said... a grower. So yes, that is all I thought it meant, because that is all that article said.
My mind reading skills are not as good as yours. I commented on one article, assuming nothing else. That article said nothing of how far it has spread.
While you may not feel it is something to dwell on because you didn't want to read beyond the title and pictures, I didn't "mind read" anything. I do practice reading comprehension before being posting a comment on someone's post. The article really was not hard to read, included this paragraph right at the get go:
Quote:
This disease thrives in cool, wet conditions and has therefore been more of a problem in states farther east. In those areas, impatiens downy mildew emerged on the scene in fall 2011 and continued to be a problem in 2012. This year, the disease is back and has been getting a lot of press lately, including even the New York Times:
Note the dates, its been a problem for 2 years (actually it has been a know issue far longer but that was when many large growers began having severe problems in multiple states in spite of containment attempts). The NY Times article that was alluded to in the article was the first link below that paragraph and the first paragraph in it reads:
Quote:
A mysterious strain of downy mildew has been killing one of the home gardener’s favorite annual flowers, Impatiens walleriana, up and down the East and West Coasts, in the Midwest, Texas and Ontario
and went on from there.
So again the article was not about one grower, one greenhouse or even one state, it just exemplified the latest casualty to a considerable problem. All of that was in the very first post. No mind reading, no insistence that it is one grower when it is clearly not. No excuses. Just quite ordinary reading comprehension before posting.
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