rare plants, their data and their collections

Steven hartsentwine.australia@gmail.com
Wed, 28 Dec 2011 16:13:12 PST
Hi Shelly & Everyone
Just incase anyone didn't know the Wollemi Pine is highly susceptible to Phytophthora root rot disease !!!

If the plant begins to wilt or if excessive die back from the older growth toward new tips starts, it will pay to act quickly & fungicide with a systemic fungicide etc

I was told recently that root rot has now been introduced into the last remaining natural stand by accident.....
 " I really hope it's not true,"    but if it's true, I would be less forgiving & say it's through ignorance or lack of care, it can be carried in many ways as it is easily soil transmitted.

I just hope they are wrong, but when I googled it there seemed to be an excessive amount of info on this plant carrying the disease naturally, but I didn't notice anything about contamination of wild stocks, but that wouldn't surprise me....
 One of my jobs was to control  Phytophthora root rot outbreaks, so I understand how it would be easy to transfer it into such a susceptible mycroclimate with relative ease by accident.

But home garden conservation will insure their survival now.
Best of luck & enjoy your new prehistoric giant !
Steven
Esk Qld Australia



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