30,000,000 CARNATIONS 



A 







_4' » ,- T- 



/^Ks, 





Wilted Carnation Plant. -\"ii,,„„ Bulleifield 



THE MAYFLOWER may be our 

 state flower, but it is the carna- 

 tion, America's second ranking flower, 

 that is tlie leading cut flower pro- 

 duced in the State. No mean in- 

 dustry, this flower crop was valued at 

 about three million dollars in 1950. 

 Eighty-five percent of the thirty 

 million carnations produced here are 

 shipped to the South and westward 

 to the Mississippi River. 



Massachusetts is in sixth place in 

 the United States (following New 

 York, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Cali- 

 fornia, and New Jersey) with 6.1 

 percent of the total value of cut 

 flowers grown under glass. Recog- 

 nizing this fact, the University initia- 



* Assistant Research Professor, Botany, Waltham 

 Field Station. 



By 



EUGENE C. GASIORKIEWICZ* 



ted a full-time research program at 

 the Waltham Field Station for the 

 study of flower diseases. 



The Big Three 



The "Big Three" in flower diseases 

 — Fusarium Wilt, Bacterial Wilt, and 

 Carnation Mosaic — account for the 

 greatest losses in carnation produc- 

 tion. 



Fusarium Wilt is caused by a 

 fungus that finds its way from the 

 soil to the plant's vascular system 

 (the system by which water and food 

 are conveyed through the plant) . Be- 

 cause more plants become diseased 

 during the vegetative propagation of 

 carnations by cuttings, the disease 

 is a perennial problem. 



Bacterial Wilt, the second of the 

 triumvirate, is caused by a bacterium. 

 Similar in living habits to Fusarium 

 Wilt, it is faster acting in the amount 

 of loss it causes. Since the bacter- 

 ium is readily translocated during 

 watering, it is easily and quickly 

 spread through the plants. 



Carnation Mosaic, the least known 

 of the three, is caused by a virus. 

 Highly contagious, it attacks newly 

 introduced varieties so that most of 

 them are infected within three years 

 after their release. Its destructive- 

 ness to production has not been fully 

 established. 



10 



