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Treating and preventing tuber rot


LoloT

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Hello all, 

 

Some of my Myrmecodia plants are suffering from sudden tuber rot. I saw Andreas Wistuba sent a plant with tuber rot to a lab for diagnosis and it turned out to be Phythium. There are quite a bit of fungicides on the market to threat this and other fungal diseases. I don't have experience with threating ant plants, so I'd like to have your advice.

There are also preventive bio-fungicide on the market which Trichoderma ssp. which prevents infection with Phythium ssp, Fusarium ssp and Rhizoctonia. Anyone has experience with preventive bio-fungicides on ant plants?

 

Do you guys think that mounting plants on bark helps in preventing infections by pathogens?

The chance that the substrate with potted plants contains soil pathogens is much higher than pathogens on bark, so that's why I'm asking. Mounted plants have a better airflow around the tuber as well and moist doesn't stay as long around the tuber too which helps against infection. What do you think?

 

It's the first time that I got this problem but it's very frustrating as the disease seems to infect my plants quite quickly. 

 

Looking forward to your thoughts!

 

Thanks in advance for your help.

 

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi Lolo T,

 

I have had some success treating tuber rot on Rubiaceous ant-plants with powdered sulfur.  It helps a lot to catch the infection early before it has spread excessively.  I use a butter knife or some metal tool that I can sterilize with a stove flame to scrape out the rotted sections of the caudex.  With that removed I shake a liberal amount of powdered sulfur onto the infected area. (My container of sulfur was sold in a garden store for dusting rose bushes.)  Be sure to read the health issues and precautions on the sulfur container.   I do the dusting outdoors and with a mask on to avoid breathing the sulfur.  I keep the treated part of the plant totally dry for months afterwards and watch if some parts may need to be retreated. 

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  • Frank changed the title to Treating and preventing tuber rot

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