I lost an orange butterfly weed this year that had the wilt for two years along with another orange (Asclepias tuberose) one in a garden by my garage but the one next to it is doing great? Last year I planted some purple milkweeds (Asclepias Purpurascens) and this year a couple of them got the wilt and they are gone and that was in my butterfly host bed and the rest of them are fine so far, I can’t have that in my host bed of all places what do I do about this wilt disease??? Does anyone know what causes it and how I deal with it should I just go ahead and dig the infected plants up is there any hope for them? Is there a spray that I can use?
How many of you have this problem?
Lea
Dealing with milkweed wilt and what do I do about it?
No one has had this problem or knows how to deal with it I'm getting kind of desperate here I've had it in three places in my yard so far I dug the infected plants up but just know I'll have it again I've tried to google it but no luck doesn't seem to be any bugs on them to cause them to wilt.
Maybe those particular plants are not getting enough water, my milkweeds wilt if they are thirsty, they normally need a lot of water.
If it's not lack of water, could it be some kind of fungal infection in the soil? Had something like that with my zinnias and some of my Chinese asters. Is milkweed susceptible to that sort of thing?
I had something similar happen to tons of plants after we moved here, and we've decided that it was almost definitely nematodes. We actually lost a ton of plants, of all sorts, and the symptoms sound somewhat similar to yours. I put out diatomaceous earth on a somewhat regular basis, and things cleared up (DE kills nematodes). I've also switched to eucalyptus mulch becasue it repels/kills nematodes, as well as lots of other bad bugs.
There are beneficial nematodes, by the way. We took a risk by using the DE when we realized that our plants were exhibiting signs of the BAD nematodes, and it worked. If you want to then bring beneficial nematodes into your yard to kill things like grubs, you would probably have to buy them online.
Mine just start wilting at the top before they bloom it might be in the soil how can I tell if I have nematodes? The ones in the butterfly host garden were the first ones to do that I've never had any problems there before and I've had my host garden there well guess this is the third or fourth year.
I don't think it's from water the problem started about a month ago and that's when we were getting enought rain I have five other purple milkweeds in there that I planted last year and they are fine and now my annual milkweeds are starting to show from reseeding they are about 8" tall, I do have a lot of weeds in that bed I had a death in the family in May and haven't been able to plant or weed there this year. The other two gardens where I had the orange milkweeds are watered all the time because they are closer to out front, I had two orange ones by my garage and one had the wilt and the other one didn't the one that had the wilt died and never flowered and they were about 2' from each other.
Thanks for responding :) I've tried to google but all I come up with is bugs on the plants and I don't have any bugs the milkweed bugs have just started coming around in the last few days but the plants were covered in them the last few years and I haven't had that trouble with them I don't think.
One of the kind of nematodes aren't good for pets is it is the benificial one ok to use around pets? I just can't believe that no one else has had this problem as many people that are on here that grow butterfly weed and milkweed host plants for the butterflies lol
I don't mind buying the nematodes on line if it will work my butterflies are important to me :)
woofie I don't know if they are how did you find out that you had a fungal infection in the soil? What did that do to your plants and what did you do about yours?
By the time I figured out what was wrong, it was too late to do anything to save the affected plants. But since I grow everything in containers, and I was dealing with annuals, I just used fresh soil and different pots the next year. The fungus I was dealing with (I think) is a type of Fusarium. Gardens Alive claims to have something that will save tomato plants from fusarium wilt, but it's not anything I've tried.
We won't even talk about annuals in pots lol I have searched and searched for a decent potting soil that I don’t have to mix around here and there is none I have come to realize. I just mix soil less mix and compost with a little time release. I ended up six bags of potting soil from the nursery this year well really I traded them for some soil less mix that I bought from them that had way too much peat in it and took the potting soil in trade because I needed a bunch, my flowers aren't liking that at all either 'Jungle Growth' don't buy it if it ever comes your way! They swore by it well I'm swearing too lol
I've never had any wilt on my tomatoes.
Everyone around here swears by (not at!) Whitney's potting soil and so do I! I use it for seed starting and in my Earthboxes, too. I tried a different brand this year (it was on sale, cheap, and the ingredients *sounded* good).....NEVER AGAIN!!! I'm sticking with Whitney's from now on. Pay no attention to the fact that it's made by the same people that make MiracleGrow. Very nice stuff. And I've never had wilt on my tomatoes either.
I can't be sure that my problem was fusarium, but the symptoms sure did match the descriptions I read.
You could maybe see if your local Ag Center does soil analysis for things like fungus or bugs. Some Ag Centers are run better than others; you'll either get not much more than soil pH or can opt for a more full-blown analysis. Also, if your local AC isn't all that great, see if there's a university in your state that has an Ag department that you could send samples to to look for nematodes, fungus, etc. You'd also find out in the process how your ratio of potassium, nitrogen, pH, and all that is, and may also then be able to begin correcting other issues.
At my local AC, a basis analysis only costs $5, so a more comprehensive one likely wouldn't be too expensive.....if they do it!
Here may be a good place to start (did a search for Indiana Ag Center)
http://www.agriculture.purdue.edu/aganswers/index.asp
http://www.in.nrcs.usda.gov/mlra11/soils.html
This message was edited Jul 12, 2009 6:42 AM
Thanks Emma, I have found an email address for questions thru the top link I'll email them and see if they have any answers.
I just have to give kudos to Emma for using eucalyptus mulch. I prefer my cypress trees in the swamp where they belong. : )
Melanie
Thank you, Melanie! I'm ashamed to admit the many mistakes I've made in the garden in the past...invasive plants, cypress mulch, and so on, but especially since moving to FL, I've become aware that cypress mulch being advertised as "sustainably harvested" is a lie since there's actually no way to do this. I know there's a lot of controversy about whether or not it's environmentally responsible, but I've been so happy with the eucalyptus that I'd not go back to the cypress anyway. I'm even managing healthy non-Nelson roses in FL, a task many traditional Floridian rose gardeners would swear is impossible (there's a particular nematode here that attacks the roots of all roses except the ones - maybe floribunda? - that Nelson's uses to graft things like tea roses onto...eucalyptus mulch repels or kills that nematode without any additional pesticides). Of course, cedar is the similar, but I've not been able to find cedar anywhere here except in small bags at the pet store to freshen dog bedding, which is a shame because I really liked using it when we lived in SC.
Believe me, we've all made mistakes as newbies. I won't even tell my stories about caterpillars I've unintentionally killed. One thing I like about butterfly gardening is that it kind of forces you to be more environmentally conscious. I started out by wanting to do more with native plants and when I kept seeing all this stuff about "host plants" I became interested and the rest is history!
Melanie
I don't care for the smell of eucalyptus that's just me but I don't think we have that kind of mulch here anyway I could do the cedar mulch but my accounts are frozen right now my sister is contesting my dad's Will so I think I will have to go with chemicals for this year :( This bed had other flowers in it and the smallest bed that I have needed a little more than a truck load of mulch and that was $50 and this bed is about four times bigger so it would be at least $200 for mulch I just couldn't swing that much for right now.
Later today when I get my running done I'm going to check on the stuff for the nematodes and I'm also waiting to hear from the Ag Center that I emailed yesterday that may take a couple of days.
Emma what kind of trouble were you having with the nematodes? Maybe I need to research those a bit, I really need to get off here for a couple of appointments today I'll be back later this afternoon :)
Thanks for trying to help me out :)
Case Closed :)
Starlight1153 found this:
http://www.apsnet.org/pd/PDFS/1995/PlantDisease79n11_1176.PDF
This is what I have and it looks like I won't be able to plant in my butterfly host garden for a couple of years now or that is what she suggested and it makes sense to me, I hope no one else has to deal with this! And I hope to find time this fall to start another butterfly host garden for next year LOL
Thanks for your help everyone it was really appreciated!
Lea
Lea, that is a fascinating article! I guess this bacteria hasn't reached all parts of the counrty yet, but this may be a problem we begin seeing in all part of the country sooner or later. Thanks for sharing, and good luck!
Apparently it will be in the seeds too so now I'm leery of even trading for milkweed and butterfly weed seeds. I have some that were purchased last year and those are the Asclepias Purpurascens one that I have in my host garden that had the blight and I'm just wondering if the seeds came that way because I never had it in my host garden before. I get so much enjoyment out of my host garden I just can't believe this is happening! What is going to happen to the butterflies if it spreads all over the US it's a pretty scary thought!!
Well I am glad you finally got an answer, but I am not happy there is nothing to do about it! This is very scary for the Monarchs!
With it being a commercial crop, there's probably research being done on ways to kill this bacteria successfully and rapidly. This article was published 14 YEARS ago, so I do wonder if there isn't something that's already been found to kill this bacteria. It may be worth contacting this university's ag department to see if they have isolated a way to kill the bacteria, or doing some research on this bacteria and treatment for it.
I'm going to quote what Starlight1153 said she is having computer trouble or I'm sure she would come over I hope she doesn't mind:
When I say don't plant there again. I don't mean the whole area. Sorry about that, I mean don't plant the same type of plant. You can plant other plants there and should have no problem as long as they not in the exact same family.
The reason is because if you did not get all the tiny piece s of root out of that area, you could still have some infected pieces as with a bacterial disease it infects all parts of the plant. It goes up one side and down to root s and back up again. You would have some of the bacteria in the roots and even though they may be composting down eventually they could potentially infect your plant if you plant another milkweed there. Any other milkweeds you plant around that area keep two feet from that are a on each side away from the plant ya pulled up.
That one is a research study as this is a relatively new strain and it not a high dollar plant that would cause economical loss to growers there’s not a whole lot of research on it yet.
Every time you trade seed or buy seed form a home gardener, you take a chance on possible having an infected plant. Even buying commercial seed it can happen but more control there. Have said before best thing you can do with seed is to dip in hydrogen peroxide solution or if seed to tiny use a mist bottle and spray it. That will take care of most fungal problems. With bacterial there is no cure other than pulling and burning or buying resistant seed which is not 100% but maybe about 98%.
I would suggest since there is the problem of X disease with the milkweed, I would start and grow all the plants out individually and then later put into garden and use something like garden safe 3 in one spray on them to protect them from getting a bacterial infection. It is a fungicide, insecticide which will protect from aphids and leaf hoppers and other insects that can pick up a bacterial disease and pass it on next plant they drink from and minor fertilizer all in one. Good stuff and doesn't hurt the beneficials.
I'm still waiting for an answer from the Ag. Center when they write back if they do I'll ask them if they have found a cure yet.