Whats wrong with my coneflowers?

rollie(4a)September 24, 2007

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.

Thanks.

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Comments (7)

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Iris GW

It might be Aster Yellows disease. It affects coneflowers. The solution is to pull out and destroy the affected plants.

Like Save September 24, 2007 at 12:34PM

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fatamorgana2121(Zone 5/6)

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

Like Save September 24, 2007 at 6:17PM

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rollie(4a)

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.

Like Save September 24, 2007 at 8:05PM

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davidl_ny5

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

Like Save October 2, 2007 at 12:05PM

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rollie(4a)

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?

Like Save October 6, 2007 at 10:08AM

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wildtek

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

Like Save October 19, 2007 at 2:34PM

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man_oh_man(5/Eastern Ia)

definitely aster yellow, it affects asters and coneflowers. you better get em out before the spread to others.

Like Save November 4, 2007 at 1:02PM