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| I noticed several of these light pinkish clumps growing out of one of my new P. Summer Wine's. Has anyone seen any such thing before? Sorry, my photo's not that great. I think the flash went off. I tried to get in tight where it joins the regular stem. Hard to see that.
Is it a witches broom? Is a witches broom a sport? Or is a sport a witches broom? could it be fungal? |
Follow-Up Postings:
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| I did some research myself...don't like what I found: A common symptom caused by phytoplasma infection is phyllody, the production of leaf-like structures in place of flowers. |
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| More... Fine Gardening Physocarpus description contains: Problems: Relatively problem-free, but leaf spots, fireblight, powdery mildew, and witches' broom sometimes occur. hmmm... so are the two references related? does phytoplasma create witches brooms? synonymous? The former can be fatal. the latter sounds innocent. |
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| More likely something normal rather than all those nastsy things. It's difficult to see what's happening. But perhaps it's just new growth coming from an existing stem. |
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| "A common symptom caused by phytoplasma infection is phyllody, the production of leaf-like structures in place of flowers." I don't think this photo meets this description. It isn't in place of flowers which would normally be during spring for Ninebarks. In any case, I haven't seen that on my Summer Wine but I will check tomorrow. |
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| In any event I would of try to propagate cuttings from this branch and see how it will behave. |
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- Posted by ken_adrian z5 (My Page) on Thu, Sep 25, 08 at 12:15
| any chance that the pattern of the growth is consistent with a shoe print??? any use of herbicides or other chemicals.. that might have been on the shoe ..... i have heard ... that stuff like roundup ... though it might not kill the plant.. might cause some weird growth ... i had a variegated plantain ... and someone suggested it was a result of the roundup i use .... weed be gone might do the same ... who knows ... ken |
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| Wendy, I realize your photo may be deceiving but the leaf color of your Physocarpus opulifolius ‘Summer Wine’ is much different from mine which is much darker. Have you considered looking to it’s parents P. ‘Diablo’ and P. ‘Nana’ for some clues? kt |
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| george, cutting from the outgrowth? or tip cutting of the branch? why? what do you mean "behave"? kt, the leaf color is better on the outer leaves that get more sun. can't find much about Diablo and Nana without stumbling on Summer Wine. The reference above from Fine Gardening is the only clue that this is not uncommon for the genus. http://www.taunton.com/finegardening/plantguide/genus/physocarpus.aspx ? I did find out that "witches broom" is a fungal disease. I can't figure out if its fatal or not. I only got this plant this spring. I am going to bring this pic to the garden center and see if any other customers had same problem. Now... if only I could remember where I got it... :(
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| Wendy, I would of use for propagation only the portion the stem where the weird outgrowth-'witch' show itself. You have nothing to loose by trying, right? |
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| I had always assumed it was some form of powdery mildew that cause the witches brooms. Nana seems particularly susceptible. Some years are worse than others, but I have never seen any real detrimental effects other than asthetics. It's rather unsightly, even in the winter. |
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| Leftwood, you were right. Look what happened this year! Gross!!!
The whole plant looks reasonable from a distance:
but I'm going to get rid of it anyhow. It is gross to look at at front entrance but mostly I don't want anything to spread to my 2 other summer wines or Diablo. |
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