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| I purchased several echinacea this spring and summer, some from Lowes Hardware, some from a local garden center, and some from a perennial nursery... all here in central North Carolina. The aster yellows infection rate is quite high and I've thrown out half of my purchases along with crown cuttings made from infected plants. I was particularly disappointed in the purchases from Lowes after having high hopes for the excellent cultivars they were selling at reasonable prices. The nursery guys tell me that infected plants are often dumped on unsuspecting buyers. Is that the problem or is this disease endemic in the South now? Is the reservoir of infection in native plants causing my problems? Should I throw out infected plants.... as the nursery tells me... or tolerate the infection as an unavoidable fact of life? |
Follow-Up Postings:
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- Posted by nevermore44 6b (nevermore44@yahoo.com) on Fri, Sep 19, 14 at 9:14
| Make sure it is absolutely asters yellows (AY).. and not Eriophyid mites... which seems to be much more common. Mites cause clustered cones... and sometimes lack of petals.... but you can "fight" it to keep it at a minimum. AY will cause the green petals and mini blooms from the main cone.... and in really bad cases.. the plant declines as well. I have seen both being sold at nurseries.... so i never buy any echs that don't already have a bloom or two open. |
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- Posted by moistbutwelldrained 7b - N. Carolina (My Page) on Fri, Sep 19, 14 at 10:11
| nevermore, All the plants I bought had multiple flowers that looked fine at the time of purchase. I have not seen clustered cones. What I see are normal looking stems and early cones that develop green tops and never produce petals. It looked so much like online photos I've seen for AY that I did not take a photo of my plants. I did not notice any lack of vigor in the plants. In fact they seemed very healthy. Some have suggested living with the disease, which will not manifest until August. My real question is whether I should throw out the plants or tolerate the disease, given that it is said to originate from leafhoppers that winter in the South and infect wild carrots etc. which exist here in abundance. If I see these symptoms again, I will post photos on this forum. |
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- Posted by nevermore44 6b (nevermore44@yahoo.com) on Fri, Sep 19, 14 at 11:28
| from my experience, the immature blooms can look similar with either issue... so if you can let one develop fully... you will be able to verify what's going on. My father has a patch of standard purp echs that are partially infected with AY... and have been for years. I don't know if it's killing any and infecting later generations or if the infected plants just aren't being killed by the virus. The infected plants always grow quite vigorously. In regards to keeping them... i say remove them since they can then be a vector to other plants (rudbeckia, some veggies, goldenrod... even you precious dandelions!). They won't be attractive by any means either... so pitch them. Infected echinacea...
Infected rudbeckia....
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