Galanthus: Diseases and plagues

Not much fun, but it is part of the game.

Fungi: here

Bacteria: follows

Gal. John Tomlinson P1 14-1-2015
G. ‘John Tomlinson’, is this caused by virus?

Viruses: They will probably be around, but in practice they cause little or no problems. It is said that nearly all bulbs of Galanthus plicatus “Augustus”  are infected with a virus. However, this has almost no influence on these plants.

Slugs: These slow little animals can become a true nightmare to Galanthus enthousiast. Even in a literal sense, as they are mostly active during the nighttime, having a serious appetite. They mostly like the flowers. And it is those that you don’t want to miss. That is why slugs and snails are fought! How? In hundreds of different ways, which only solve part of the problem.

Mice and Rabbits: Let’s start with mice: typically not a big problem. They seem not to like flowers or leaves, but it may happen that a bulb disappears. The use of lattice baskets makes it a lot harder for the mice to reach the bulbs. But… those cute friendly rabbits. Especially in early spring, when there are little bunnies, there is not so much food to go around. Add to the fact that young rabbits do not yet know what is edible and what is not. And thus… they try to find out whether your snowdrops taste as good as they look. And what will you find: all pedicels gnawed through.  And it didn’t really taste so good either, because everything is left behind. In my experience, putting up sturdy black thread, approximately 4 inches on top and around the plants keeps the rabbits away.

Back to the main Galanthus page