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dragoonsers

Roses dying- one by one!

dragoonsers
10 years ago

Hello. I grow all my roses in containers (Terracotta-5 to 8 gal). They've been growing very well- till now. I'm in zone 10 so July gets really hot. So a couple roses were wilting which I thought was normal. But then, after a week, about seven were showing the same signs- wilting, leaf drop, new leaf growth which would ultimately die even in the shade.

This happened after I did some hoeing and weeding (using the same tools) so I think it's infective whatever it is!

Symptoms:
Leaves wilt, then burnt to brown and fall off leaving bare stems. The stems put out new growth and that growth wilts and dies. The plant keeps trying to grow but just doesn't. I would think it's dieback, but I noticed today that some of the healthy ones, their stems are sorta dying from below up ie the stem where it leaves the ground turns a sickly brown, and that brown seems to be crawling up and the plant ultimately dies.

It could be root rot, given that maybe I overwatered in the heat. I've been growing them for two years in containers with a 50/50 mix of river sand and rotted manure. They love it. But I don't know what to do now since this never happened!

I've lost almost all my plants but want to save the ones I have left. I'll post a picture soon in the day. I just hope its not pythophthora or something I read on the internet :(

Any advice would be great!

Best,

Hamza

Comments (28)

  • jerijen
    10 years ago

    Hamza -- are your pots s8tting flat onnthe ground? Or in saucers? Or ratsed up on 'pot feet'?

    Jeri

  • jerijen
    10 years ago

    Hamza -- are your pots s8tting flat onnthe ground? Or in saucers? Or ratsed up on 'pot feet'?

    Jeri

  • dragoonsers
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    They're flat on the ground- on soil. I'm cursing myself right now for doing this!

  • dragoonsers
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Black arrow- the browning dying stem
    Red Arrow- Wilting/Brown leaves/Dieback?
    Yellow Arrow- healthy green canes
    Green Circle- Black stems, but firm no rot smell

  • dragoonsers
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Another One

  • dragoonsers
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    When uprooted, this is all the roots I get

  • seil zone 6b MI
    10 years ago

    That's a terrible shame, Hamza! It looks like they never got a chance to grow any roots. In the future you need to use pots with lots of drainage holes and a very well draining potting soil and get them up off the ground on open trolleys but do not use the saucers that come with the pots. Those are designed to hold water in. You want the bottoms of the pots to drain very freely so the roots do not sit in water logged soil.

  • dragoonsers
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Actually these were growing really well in 5 gal containers, and are about an year old. What should i do with the healthy ones that remain? Any precautions?

    Also, how're those nursery grow bags 10 20 gal for growing roses? I'd get a bigger container that way which drains well!

  • roseblush1
    10 years ago

    You are growing your roses in clay pots in zone 10?

    A couple of things to consider in addition to raising the pots a bit from the hard surface ... which I think is a must for good drainage.

    What is your heat zone ? Do your high temps get much above 80 degrees ? If you have a high heat zone and the temps are high, you very well may be cooking the roots in those clay pots. Even the black nursery pots are better in my experience.

    The photo of the uprooted plants, shows that there are very few feeder roots to carry moisture up to the top growth.

    Are you using a good draining potting soil ? Some potting soils are too heavy and to compensate so that you have better drainage, you can drill extra drainage holes in the pots.

    When I was growing all of my roses in containers because I was living in a condo, if I saw a rose not performing well, I often moved the the pot to another site. Just moving the pot helped many of the roses.

    Just food for thought.

    Smiles,
    Lyn

  • seil zone 6b MI
    10 years ago

    I don't care for the soft pots myself. If you have to move them they're too flexible and you can break up the root ball and damage the rose. I like either plastic or resin pots best. They're sturdy, light weight, cooler for the roots, easy to drill extra drainage holes into and winter well. You can usually get them fairly inexpensively too. Fall is a great time of year to find them on sale places as stores are getting rid of summer gardening stock.

  • kittymoonbeam
    10 years ago

    The no roots issue is the most worrisome thing of all. The plants try to grow but don't have any roots to make it happen. I would get them in new soil ( good potting mix with NO added fert.) and trim them back so that there is just a little top to match the roots that are left. This is a big gamble to do this. There might not be any healthy root left anyway. There is a second gamble you can take. Mix 1/2 potting soil and half sand and repot with that until new leaves grow and stay. The watering is trickier but the roots grow faster. The more sand, the easier on the roots to regrow but watering is harder too. I did this method a few times and pulled some dying roses back from the edge.

    I would put them in bright shade under a tree and be extra careful on the watering. Then wait and see if any growth lives.

    Maybe the hot pots+ water rotted all the roots when the heatwave came. Clay and any pot that heats up is tough on roses. Roses like cool roots. When I moved my potted roses behind a low hedge to shade the roots, they were much happier. I wish you luck saving them, it's very sad that it happened that way. The heat wave sunburnt so many of my roses. It was an extra long heatwave this time instead of a few days.

  • roseseek
    10 years ago

    Not to negate nor contradict anything offered you so far. The black areas appear to be sun scald, or sun burn. The heat from the direct sun shining on the canes kills the cambium layer (circulatory system) under the bark and everything above the dead area dies due to nothing flowing up the stem to it. Kim

  • dragoonsers
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Thank you guys for all your suggestions- I was a bit distraught and had no clue what it was/what to do!

    I'll move the pots. I stuck a thermometer in the biggest clay pot I have 18" diameter, and it reads 31 C in the morning when we had a lo of 23 C last night! So it could be all these factors, with the cooked up roots messing everything.

    I have sharifa asma, two HTs, Maria Shriver, Sentimental and Double Delight which I really want to save. Thanks again!!

    Hamza

  • roseseek
    10 years ago

    Not to negate nor contradict anything offered you so far. The black areas appear to be sun scald, or sun burn. The heat from the direct sun shining on the canes kills the cambium layer (circulatory system) under the bark and everything above the dead area dies due to nothing flowing up the stem to it. Kim

  • roseblush1
    10 years ago

    Kim...

    Thanks for pointing out the sun burn. I was so busy looking at the roots, I hardly looked at the photos of the canes. That's something I can look for in my own garden.

    Smiles,
    Lyn

  • hoovb zone 9 sunset 23
    10 years ago

    river sand and rotted manure

    Given the condition of your root systems, not a mix I would use. Try sand and peat instead.

  • susan4952
    10 years ago

    Toss these. Buy new roses, better potting medium, and listen to the people on this forum.

  • susan4952
    10 years ago

    Toss these. Buy new roses, better potting medium, and listen to the people on this forum.

  • dragoonsers
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Yup gonna do exactly that! Thanks again :)

  • dragoonsers
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Dying cane on the right!

  • dragoonsers
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Sickly stem colour or is this normal?

  • dragoonsers
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    More "sickly canes". In contrast look at the green canes. This is a mini.

    Btw, these roses go semi-dormant and will push out growth starting next month.

  • dragoonsers
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    This is the dying cane.

    I'm just really confused. And distraught.

    P.S I'm just 22 years old so please go easy on me. I want to get to the bottom of this. I will get new roses in December so want to give them a better start!

    Thanks,

    H

  • susan4952
    10 years ago

    Many old experienced rose growers have learned by trial and error. I actually planted a bare root upside down! Hang in there! So many variables to growing roses.

  • dublinbay z6 (KS)
    10 years ago

    Is there some reason why you are growing roses in containers? If not, I'd recommend you plant them in the garden. I think you would find that a lot of your rose problems disappear if you do that.

    Kate

  • jim1961 / Central Pennsylvania / Zone 6
    10 years ago

    Anybody know what that whiteish colored stuff is on those rose canes?

    My guess is its some type of fungus...???

  • dragoonsers
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    I'm not gonna give up susan. Still hanging in like a stubborn child!

    Kate I grew my roses in the ground. They grew well the first year but then they would stunt. Problem turned out to be tree roots (I have huge trees everywhere) and they weren't letting anything flourish, from lemons to papayas to roses. So everything went into pots!

    The whitish stuff are dead scale insects. Just gotta wipe em off!

  • kittymoonbeam
    10 years ago

    Your roses had a tough time but I think you will be a better gardener after all this is sorted out. Minis root really well off the canes, so I would plant them deeper and see if you can get them to make new roots higher up. I do this with most of my bigger roses anyway. I keep planting them a little deeper in a bigger pot and hopefully, they are making roots just under the soil each time. Trees will stunt roses. You are right about that. Can you make some shade fall on the pots like putting the pot in a larger pot with some bark between or putting some low plants in front to provide some shade? Just in case the hot weather comes back. For right now help your roses to stop dying and then later work on regrowing them into full foliaged plants. I would keep the flowerbuds picked off for now.