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January 10, 2011

Flowering Amaryllis and Red Blotch

My Red Lion amaryllis bulbs were infected with red blotch which spread to all the rest of my amaryllis bulbs, and there's really not a whole lot that can be done.  I'm trying to treat the bulbs and hacked them back HARD to remove as much infected tissue as possible, and I let them soak in fungicide for a while.  I have no idea if they will recover.  I've cut myself off from purchasing more amaryllis until these are treated or incinerated, and they've been quarantined inside the house as well.  The non-Red-Lion amaryllis are the least affected and are sending up flower stalks which is kinda surprising.  I haven't seen any red blotch on any new growth, but the bulbs might still be infected.



When I was at Home Depot checking out after Christmas sales, I checked on their amaryllis bulbs, and they were all infected with red blotch. 
When I brought it up to a manager, he shrugged and said he couldn't do anything about it - Home Depot would continue to buy from the nursery and sell infected bulbs that will only increase the plague.  It's absolutely amazing that a company would continue to sell infected bulbs to people who probably don't know about red blotch and that spreading red blotch further is going to mean fewer bulbs in the future.  Who doesn't check on new product to make sure it's clean and then return whatever was damaged?  It's so simple.  I know Home Depot isn't exactly well-known for its nursery care, but this is ridiculously bad business.

And I saw red blotch on all the amaryllis bulbs at Lowe's as well.  Bah!








8 comments:

  1. I almost grabbed some of these at Home Depot, now I'm very glad I didn't! Hope you got it all and the bulbs will be fine!

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  2. This is good to know, I'm growing my first one that my neighbor brought to me. I had no idea what red blotch was, so now I know what to look for.

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  3. The store manager has little to do with ordering things. The bulb company makes a massive sale to Home Depot and each store gets some of the product. Contact the nursery or the state's department of agriculture.

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  4. I have never heard of red blotch before so I'm going to google it! I am sorry to hear about that and that store manager should care more!

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  5. What a shame. This is bad business. I agree, contact the State Ag Department.

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  6. You're right to be angry Redhead. Red blotch is a new one on me but not the attitude of the sales staff.
    Laura

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  7. Oh dear, I didn't even know amaryllis were prone to diseases and had never heard of red blotch. I think my mother bought our amaryllis from a big box store so I'll keep an eye out on them.

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  8. It's good you alerted the public, however only a few read this here. My white amaryllis given by a friend has some discolored pitting at the center of the leaves along the midvein. I googled for diseases but i cant see same symptoms, i think it is virus. I dont know about red blotch either, whether its fungus or bacteria.

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