WILT OR STEM ROT. 



This may be called the " Wilt " or •' Stem Rot," and is now per- 

 haps the most common and destructive disease of the aster. It has 

 been known for some time but has greatly increased in abundance 

 during the past few years, being more generally prevalent during the 

 summer of 1901 than ever before. It is the trouble referred to by 

 Professor Galloway in American Gardening, Vol. XVII, p. 518, 1896, 

 who states that it is caused by a fungus which enters the plant near 

 the surface of the ground and fills up the water vessels of the stem, 

 thus causing the plant to wilt and finally die. 



Symptotns. This disease is readily recognized by one familiar 

 with it. It first appears soon after the plants are set out in the bed 

 and is generally prevalent from that time on throughout the season, 

 but is most noticeable at two periods, the setting of the plants and 

 the time of blossoming. Complaints of this trouble are most abund- 

 ant from the latter part of July to the middle of August, as it is dur- 

 ing this period that most of it appears. To the casual observer the 

 presence of this blight is first indicated by the death of affected 

 plants. Those who examine closely find that the stem of the plant 

 just at the surface of the ground is badly rotted and evidently the 

 seat of the difficulty, the hard inner woody portion only remaining. 

 This, however, is the final stage of the disease, which may be recog- 

 nized much earlier. Ite effects are always seen first upon one side 

 of the plant, usually in one of the lower leaves and almost always in 

 one-half of the leaf. Here the normal color begins to turn to a dull 

 yellowish green. Soon this is apparent up and down the whole 

 length of the plant, but still on one side, a wilting, fading, "blight- 

 ing " effect. At the top of the plant the leaves on the affected side 

 are somewhat smaller than the others while further down they grad- 

 ually droop and die away. The whole appearance is very charac- 

 teristic, one side of the plant having the dull-green, wilted, blighted 

 appearance with only one-half of many of the leaves affected at first. 

 When the disease is prevalent many plants take on this appearance 

 and die soon after being set out in the bed. Often a large lot will 

 be a total loss before setting a blossom. In other cases plants in 

 which the symptoms are apparent, but not so strongly marked, will 

 throw out branches, form buds and develop a few feeble flowers 

 before entirely perishing. Again it is very common for plants which 



