Virus questions - milk spray
Diane Whitehead (Fri, 12 Jul 2002 21:14:47 PDT)

About 30 years ago when I grew bearded iris, growers in the Eastern
part of North America would use milk to treat a soft rot of the
rhizomes. As far as I know, this is not a problem in Western North
America, so I have not had any personal experience with it. That is
the only use of milk against plant disease that I have heard of.

I did not get in on the very beginning of this discussion as I
deleted what I thought were messages about computer viruses, so I
hope I don't repeat what has been said.

I think if a plant is very vigorous, it might not show symptoms, but
if it becomes stressed, the virus then is revealed. In lilies, some
very robust ones carry virus without showing it, and insect vectors
can spread the virus from them to susceptible ones that readily show
symptoms. I haven't heard of virus being spread through soil.

Diane Whitehead, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
maritime zone 8
cool mediterranean climate