It has to be snails. But, where are they? My beautiful alstromeria are all dying. On a couple of early mornings I killed a score of snails. I have not seen them since. I have checked out all the likely hiding places. Yet something is killing the alstromaria.
I have a dog, so I do not want to put out pellets. Any suggestions as to how to get rid of snails without poison?
Reddaddy
I don't see any holes in the leaves which would be the usual sign of snails, the way they kill things is by chewing lots of the leaves off and I don't see that. I suspect it might be summer heat instead--I've found that the ones I have especially in sunnier parts of the garden tend to struggle somewhat with the summer heat, and your weather is hotter than mine. The way the leaves look is more consistent with something like that rather than snail damage.
I agree with ecrane that it doesn't look like snail damage. I have tons of snails in my yard so unfortunately, I am very familiar with their damages. This is about the time of the year when my alstromerias die back, so it may be that too.
ecrane3 and soilsandup
I am glad to learn it is not snails. My sprinklers are set for 22 minutes. But, I will check the spray coverage. In any case I will hand water.
Thanks
It never hurts to check the watering and make sure you're not giving too much or too little, but since they don't seem to like a ton of heat they would probably behave the same even if they had the right amount of watering.
Red: I've had mine for 2 years only, but they seem to go thru a "dormant" period in the middle of our hot summers, which I suspect may be similar temps to yours. They come back like gangbusters in the fall. Extra watering doesn't seem to make them any happier.
Also if you do have snails, even if that's not what's bothering your alstros, you can use Sluggo, which is organic iron phosphate granules and safe for pets, etc.. My silly cat went immediately to where I hat put some out and ate some. Didn't bother her a bit. Fortunately she didn't like it. I've been using it for about 3 years, and it does a great job. I sprinkle a little bit every few weeks. Does a great job on snails and slugs in my garden.
Sluggo is the BEST! It's expensive, but definitely worth it in the long run.
Imapigeon and JasperDale
Thank you both. I will keep Slugo in mind.
This summer was hot earlier and hotter overall than last year when I had no Alstromeria problems. They just kept blooming all summer long, and I thought I had a miracle plant ever so beautiful and hardy.
I have scaled back my watering to 18 minutes and will be patient.
There are two types of growth on the alstromeria. It looks like most of what is dying is old flower. I would pull all of the stalks with "seed pods" on them. Once the flowers are done, those stalks really don't add to the plant. Actually pulling them out will stimulate new growth.
The other leaf stalks that grow, without flowering are what add energy back to the plant. Leave them in place until they die back.
You may just be seeing natural die back. The rhizomes will likely remain viable and come back next year. Look at some of Ursula's in situ photos to see how rough the terrain is that they grow in naturally. They do not stay beautiful all year long, but when they flower - WOW!
Yes, I agree 100 %. They're one of my favorite perennials and they bloom for months on end.
I bought some commercial seeds, and I have one stalk I think has seeds that I'm letting mature. The instructions on the package were pretty daunting, and I haven't done anything with the seeds I bought. Anyone have success growing alstros from seed?
I tried it once and it didn't work. I'm not very patient when it comes to starting things from seed.
I've read in several places that they're hard to start from seed. I tried once and didn't succeed (but I fail with a lot of other things too so that doesn't necessarily mean anything! LOL) Also some of the prettier (in my opinion) cultivars that you see at the garden centers can't be grown from seed, so I usually buy mine as plants.
It has been my experience that its best to pull the flower stalks up as soon as they are done blooming. Don't cut them off but grasp the stalk firmly and pull it up. This will stimulate a new flower stalk to grow. The shorter varieties tend to bloom profusely in the spring and then take a short Break and begin to bloom again. The plant in the picture appears to be about 95% stalks that have flowered. I would pull all of those stalks, which will leave the bed almost empty but new plants will start to grow within a coulpe of weeks as long as the ground is moist.
George
Yep, when the blooms fade & petals fall, gently pull the entire stalk all the way down to the ground. Took me a while to learn that, but it's kept mine blooming!~~
Certain varieties of alstromeria must be very easy to grow from seeds because my sister who lives in Southern CA always lets a few of the flowers to to seed, and she pots them up with great success. The ones that she doesn't get around to picking self-sows around the parent plants. And from what I can recall, the new plants are the same color as the mother plant.
How far back is back? My seven Alstromeria now run the gamit of somewhat died back to vitually dead. Please view three (in successive posts) of my plants. The first (here) is somewhat died back.
Reddaddy
Died Back
Virtually Dead
Given that this is September, and you are in Bakersfield, your Alstromeria are doing just what they should be doing this time of year.
They're not big on intense summer heat, so yours are just going dormant, but will return in the spring. When they go dormant, they virtually disappear, so just let whatever is there die back naturally and leave the area where they're planted, alone.
Don't cultivate in that area where they're growing. In spring they should come back full force.
Even though you don't see any top growth until spring, they're forming new shoots underground which will probably start emerging for you around February.
JasperDale
Thank you. Now I understand the variety of Alstromeria reactions to the heat of summer. I wish I had known that last summer. One of my alstromerias "died" last year. (The others were unscathed.) I repaced it last fall, and in the process (I now realize) killed the original plant. Why this is a big deal to me is that all my original Alstromeria were of a stunningly beautiful deep red. That one replacement is only pretty. Is possible to take a portion of one of died back deep red plants to replace the one lost?
I suppose you could try that, if you know exactly where the parent plant is/was. They have very crunchy tuberous type roots, so try not to disturb them too much when transplanting. Try to get a decent size clump and transplant the whole clump.
There are two types of Alstromeria: Evergreen and Deciduous. I don't know which one(s) you have, but where you are, given the high summer temps., I would think even the evergreen varieties would go dormant on you at this time of year. My evergreen ones go dormant completely, probably due to the fact that even though I am at the coast, our summers are very hot.
If you're going to try transplanting, I would wait until the temperatures drop to below 80* where you are. It's not a good idea to transplant things when the temps are still really high...which I assume they are in Bakersfield right now. You'll have better luck with them surviving if you do it when it's cooler out.
You may want to try planting them in a spot where they get afternoon shade in the hot parts of summer...they might perform better that way.
Mine do best in a north or eastern exposure. The ones I have in southern and western exposures usually start to fry by July given how hot it gets here in the summer.
Hope this helps !
JasperDale, thanks again. I will wait several weeks, and then try the transplant. I will let you know how it goes.
