Scott Alexander -Organic Daylily Grower
HOW & WHEN WILL RUST ARRIVE IN AUSTRALIA?
It is inevitable that the dreaded rust will appear here just as the daylily aphid did back in 1984/85. The aphid came into the country because someone couldn't see the harm in sneaking in a daylily plant. It would be risky and very expensive for someone to try that again because there are often sniffer dogs checking out incoming passengers. But sniffer dogs wouldn't detect rust on the clothes or on the boots of any daylily person entering the country. So ... if anyone on this Robin is thinking of coming to Australia, please let us know and we'll Quarantine you for three months (which is what happens when we import plants)
: < ))
Back to the aphid problem in Aussie - it wasn't long before the mail order nurseries had spread these little devils all over the country. My business was very small at the time but I had about a half acre patch of seedlings and this area was devastated by aphid. They had no resistance to them and there were no predators. There were millions of them creating a sticky mess down in the center of the clumps; the foliage was dry and brown. What a mess. I was so angry about what they were going to do to my business, I decided I could do without daylilies and invest my money in some other business. I threw a match into them and the wind soon spread the fire throughout the patch. When it had died down, I packed a bag and spent two weeks down at the beach. When I returned I was hoping there would be no daylilies left alive but I was wrong. Here I am, 14 years later, having never sprayed one ounce of insecticide over my daylilies with anything other than one small trial of Safer's Insecticidal soap spray. PREDATORS ABOUND throughout my 6 acres, and predators abound throughout Australia - but only in the gardens of people who do not spray insecticides. The late Bill Munson didn't spray either but that was an example many growers chose not to follow. I have been wondering lately . . . if he were alive today, would he be spraying his huge nursery to prevent rust from entering?
John Mann writes - "For this reason, I am pleading with you to be cautious in applying anything to your garden if you do not have a REAL reason to suspect that there is a specific pathogen there on a plant." He is well qualified to plead with you to be
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