Whats wrong with my coneflowers?

rollie

16 years ago

It seem my conflowers heads start out perfectly,

And then when they start to mature, they morph into a worthless head.

Heres a good seed head, and one that is not.

Could it have anything to do with this bug, as it seems that this type burrows down into the head alot.

Any ideas.

I'm new at this.

That whold bed of coneflowers was started from last years seeds.

Theres a lot of bees and butterflies that are working the flowers over. but that one green bug, burrows into the head.

Here is the bed of flowers, you can see some nice heads, and some starting to morph. You can also see the green bugs on a few flowers.{{gwi:1067080}}

Thanks.

Comments (7)

Iris GW
16 years ago
It might be Aster Yellows disease. It affects coneflowers. The solution is to pull out and destroy the affected plants.
fatamorgana2121
16 years ago
I have both bugs and finches that eat the seeds out of my coneflowers. It's almost impossible for me to save any seed from them. But even so, the bug chewed and finch ravaged seed heads look nothing like what you have there. I don't think it's a bug problem you have.

FataMorgana
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Sow bug, pill bug, I'm not sure there's a difference...we called them potato bugs when we were kids but I couldn't tell you why....I don't remember :) While usually more of a green house pest than garden pest (injurious to seedlings as well as decaying plant material), you seem to have some hungry enough they are feeding on your stressed (need water) plants (- that points to large numbers of them to me). I think it would help if you could clean up leaf and needle debris under the plants behind your coneflowers, I suspect you may have large numbers of the pill bugs there where they are cool and protected during the day. I had a heck of a time with them one year only - I was letting a little rapidly spreading 1" sedum fill in around perennials thinking it made nice groundcover, when what it was making was pill bug habitat. Removing the sedum solved the problem. There is also a flake/granular type bait available, should have a picture of the insects it targets on the container and may be called something like cutworm-pillbug-earwig bait. I'm sure not pet friendly though, and my guess is eliminating their hiding places should take care of them. You could compost the leaf litter/needle debris and return it to your garden later, let it decompose someplace else for now.
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I've had the same thing happen to coneflowers and black-eyed susans. Sometimes it has been just a stem or two, other times it's been the whole clump. I have never been able to figure out with any certainty what the cause was. When it's been just a stem or two, I have cut the affected stems to the ground and the plant has survived. When it has spread to the entire clump, it's been fatal. Good luck Totally Confused
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Cool looking blooms!!!!.... but that's 100% asters yellow.... you need to pull the whole plant... roots and all and pitch it.
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rollie
Original Author
16 years ago
Everything I've read, leads to aster yellow.

This is a brand new planting from saved seeds on new soil. I had some that looked that way last year, I just thought maybe they were old plants or something like that.

I pulled the plants in the picture and took them to a local nursery today and they said it was a fungus and there was alot of that around this locale this year. I'm not very confident of this information and will take them to another place that specializes.

I sure hate to think about killing all the affected plants. Ive hand weeded this patch about 20 times this year to get it established.
davidl_ny5
16 years ago
Looks like aster yellows (phyto....) to me, except the link below says plants will show chlorosis. The leaf hoppers spread it, apparently. Compare the pictures in the link. Looks like that weird seed head. If you grew that stand in a year, I'd get rid of the plants, but save the good seed. Take a year off and maybe plant w/ a cover crop (not aster-related). Then put new plants in. And maybe spray to keep the leaf-hoppers off. Just a guess, but might work.

Really nice looking plants you've got, but the disease is incurable and apparently will warp all the flowers.

Good luck.

Here is a link that might be useful: Aster yellows
rollie
Original Author
16 years ago
David,

Sorry, just getting back to this post.

I had an expert come out and look, and didnt think it was asters.

The leafage of the plant is fine and show no signs of chlorosis.

I have been pulling the affected plants.

How should I treat for leafhoppers, without hurting the butterflies and bumblebees that are using the patch?

Treat before blooms next year before it becomes attractive?
wildtek
16 years ago
I'd go with aster yellows. Deformity is often caused by viruses. My first thought when I saw the photo was virus. The web says this is a virus. This is good to know. Sorry, I gained something from your misfortune.

Here is a link that might be useful: Iowa State University
man_oh_man
16 years ago
definitely aster yellow, it affects asters and coneflowers. you better get em out before the spread to others.

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Whats wrong with my coneflowers?

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Iris GW

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