While I agree with some of the advice (stop growing Knockouts, LOL) removing infected canes isn't really a cure. It's like amputating your leg to get rid of gangrene. It can save the bush, but it doesn't kill the virus.

Hydrogen peroxide has been shown to help with a different plant virus infecting a different plant. Whether it helps with rose rosette virus will require controlled scientific studies. Still, since it is such a simple procedure, home rose growers who catch the infection early, may want to try it (first cutting off the infected cane at the crown) and then applying 3 % hydrogen peroxide to the remaining plant,

"In spite of the enormous information from research on genetics of plant disease resistance, the question still remains unresolved: what is directly inhibiting or killing pathogens and suppressing symptoms in resistant plants? This is particularly true for resistance to viral infections. Here we show that externally applied reactive oxygen species (ROS) such as hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) or ROS-producing (O 2÷â [superoxide] and H2O2) chemical systems infiltrated into tobacco leaves 2 hours after inoculation suppress replication of Tobacco mosaicvirus (TMV) in the susceptible Samsun (nn) cultivar. This was determined by a biological and a real-time PCR method. Infiltration of leaves of the resistant Xanthi (NN) cultivar with the ROS-producing chemicals and H2O2 significantly suppressed local necrotic lesions (i.e. the hypersensitive response) after inoculation of tobacco leaves with TMV. Accordingly, an early accumulation or external application of ROS, such as O 2÷â and H2O2, in tobacco may contribute to the development of resistance to TMV infection."

http://www.akademiai.com/content/q055880253up3p57/

At least, the hydrogen peroxide may kill the mites.
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Will_hydrogen_peroxide_kill_spider_mites

Here is a link that might be useful: link for above the hypersensitive response

This post was edited by henry_kuska on Mon, May 20, 13 at 23:25

I don't have knock-outs and I garden completely organically. I still lost over 50 roses to RRD.

oh dear - I have to say I don't like the first sentence - Knockouts do NOT constitute a monoculture, merely an aesthetic decision. Any mass planting of one species, with no other integral plantings could as easily be called a monoculture, including a rose garden without a single Knockout.

Off topic regarding RRD but I am, in fact, getting a bit sick of Knockout snobbery (which is jumped upon vigorously when applied to Austins). I cannot see the problem - why denigrate healthy choices, made by thousands of people. From what I have gathered, Knockout is no more susceptible than any other rose to RRD. FWIW, impatiens, which is also a snob's bete noire, has been utterly decimated by downy mildew.....yet nowhere is there a nasty backlash against all those ubiquitous planters of bizzie-lizzies (the UK term).

Aesthetically, KOs perform quite well. So, I'd argue that KOs are not an aesthetic decision but either a time-managemet decision or an intellectual or even class decision. KOs are like Agatha Christie mysteries or the Volkswagon (people's car) of roses and do a good job of it. Not everyone reads Turgenev or drives a Mercedes. I was in a lovely little garden last night. For roses, the fellow had a couple of leggy climbers on an arbor, what might have been a Charlotte Armstrong, and a KO. The KO was huge, healthy, in full flower--the biggest eye candy in the garden.

Camp, I have to agree with Garrett on the subject of Knock Out roses. When that's the only landscape plant used, that's a monoculture. I used to see more roses planted in commercial landscaping, and other plants, too. But most died during our drought a couple of years ago, and virtually everything has been replaced with KO. I passed a long median on a busy street yesterday. It used to have a variety of landscaping, including many blooming plants, now the entire length is KO. It's about 1/2 mile long. Pity. The main cheap, overused landscaping plant used to be ligustrum. Now, it's KO. I guess I'd rather look at it than ligustrum, though, even though it's become a cliche.

Yeah, well KO seems to be the Bonica or Sommerwind of the age.
Because they are not that ubiquitous over here, I do rather like the semi-double cherry red form and would not be averse to growing a couple.
Wasn't Portland famous for growing a single type of rose.....everywhere?
I dunno - I guess if I was confronted by a disease which threatened a whole swathe of my plants, I would be looking at rescues and probably pointing fingers too - it just seems a bit mean to actually blame the planting of a particular plant (Knockouts) and not really stating the whole story. There is a lot of snobbery in gardening (and I am certainly not immune) but ultimately, I am usually glad that people are planting anything, rather than paving over yards and gardens.
What is 'Garrett juice'?

Catsrose, I read the article, and also read the post by the woman with the infected roses, and couldn't find any statement that said that growing organically will *prevent* RRD. In fact, the woman with the infected rose has also been growing organically for years, and thinks it came from a neighbor's plant. The neighbor doesn't grow organically.

I think Henry is onto something here, with the peroxide. And organically grown plants are known to be stronger.

Here's the woman's story. I'm not insisting that it works; I've never even seen RRD, so have not used it. I'm putting this here so people will know about this option. I'd like to see a recent post by her, stating that her rose is still free of RRD after it's had time to grow more new canes.

Here is a link that might be useful: RRD treatment

The homeowner may have gotten lucky and cut the cane out before the virus got into the roots. Going to her pictures, it was a huge Cl Old Blush

Serious question: has anyone else seen the black coloration on canes in an almost cheetah pattern that she photographed?

I've seen Cl Old Blush with solid black dead canes that were witches brooms, but that speckled pattern is new to me.

Organic vs Not: organics may have more spider mites which are predators of the vector mites.

I found a YouTube video for Garrett Juice

Here is a link that might be useful: Garrett Juice Recipe YouTube Video

This post was edited by andreajp on Tue, May 21, 13 at 11:59

It is wrong and dangerous for Garrett to claim this as a cure--dangerous because it encourages people to keep badly infected and infectious plants around. He just made the "cure" up and apparently hasn't even tested it anecdotally. Also his instructions are misleading because they suggest that people need prune off only those stems that have weird growth, rather than the whole underlying cane, or more.

The lady who accomplished a "cure" has a misleading "after" picture. It shows a stem that obviously started into growth four or five weeks ago, well before she applied the treatment (which was "2 or 3 weeks ago"). In that time, you might get a bud to break and grow an inch or two. Rosette symptoms generally affect brand new basals or new secondary shoots starting off of infected canes.

People should handle hydrogen peroxide with care. I don't know whether or not it is safe to inhale aerosol of 3% solution or to get it in your eyes.

Not knocking on eahamel here, but Garrett is not to be trusted.

Here is a link that might be useful: toxicity of hydrogen peroxide

This post was edited by michaelg on Tue, May 21, 13 at 12:23

Thanks, Michael, you have some good points. I, too, think there needs to be more than one instance of a person treating one plant for RRD to conclude that he has a cure. That bothered me. But I would like to find out if it would work, and the only way is for someone to try it and report what happens.

michaelg's link is to toxicity of hydrogen peroxide at high concentrations. The following is the label for 3 % hydrogen peroxide:

http://dailymed.nlm.nih.gov/dailymed/archives/fdaDrugInfo.cfm?archiveid=37040

The MSDS is at:
http://www.sciencelab.com/msds.php?msdsId=9924298

For an individual sick rose (after cutting down the diseased cane), I assume that a paint brush application could be used to enhance the immune response.

Thanks, Henry. Looks like Garrett's formula (pint @ 3% per gallon water) would be safe to spray.

Howard Garrett's advice always includes his sick-tree treatment, Garrett juice, orange oil, cornmeal, dry molasses, and greensand. Any column he writes or radio show he broadcasts, recommends these things. Same old, same old. Some of the things he advocates are common sense and some don't make a lick of sense - at least to me. He's right when he says 'feed the soil', but his manner suggests that only organic advocates care about the soil. He and the late Dallas rosarian Field Roebuck had some spirited disagreements. I don't care for his dogmatism. So just take from his suggestions what seems good to you and leave the rest. I hope someone does find help for rose rosette disease. Maybe if we try different things, we'll happen on to a good thing. But I would caution against taking everything he says as gospel. Lou

We need to talk about vinegar because theres been some bad advice on this this great site.

First of all - my rose rosette cure works very well. The details are on my web site - dirtdoctor.com. If any of you have any questions, let me know at info@dirtdoctor.com or call me on the air tomorrow morning on my radio show at 866-4444-3478. Love to talk to you.

Also - any of these gardeners that say vinegar is just acidic acid are wrong! Vinegar has major nutrients, lots of trace minerals, enzymes, carbon and other good stuff. All you have to do to see how well it works - is try it!

Distilled white vinegar IS just acetic acid and water. Distilled white vinegar is made from ethanol. Look it up.

There are different types of vinegar with different contents. They are not all the same.

Another question --

The "After" photos and information were made in 2012. We're now draggin' our rears right up on the end of 2013, so it's been at least a year.

What's going on with that rose NOW? A year later, is the Cl. Old Blush growing clean? Or does it have Rose Rosette??? IMWTK!

Ann, I've seen something very like those blotches on roses here in my often-dank Southern CA coastal area, which have been hit hard by downy mildew.

Spider Mites: Out here in CA, you have more spider mites by far in plantings regularly sprayed with insecticides. Not just in gardens, but in the miles of vegetable fields here on the Oxnard Plain. To get rid of the mites, local farmers quit spraying, and cultivated "insectaries" around their fields. Success!

Jeri

Just for the record, I'd like to note that the sources linked to above (and other places also) often seem to "hint" that somehow the prevalence of Knock Out plantings is somehow associated with or maybe even directly responsible for spreading around RRD; and the one above rather illogically hints that the disease was not her fault because she gardens organically, but since her neighbor does not garden organically, the disease probably came from her neighbor's non-organic garden.

Both of those ideas/associations are WRONG--but people keep on suggesting there is some causal link between KOs/non-organic gardening and RRD. WRONG, WRONG, WRONG.

From my own experience I can testify that there have been four cases of RRD in my gardens (over a 3-4 year period) and that NONE of them involved my two Knock Outs.

The four cases of RRD involved: 1 well-established hybrid musk; 1 very well established rambler (Golden Showers); 1 newly planted floribunda (Easter); and 1 Austin (St. Swithun). Two of the cases were in spots fairly close together but not next to each other; the other two cases were both in completely different parts of the garden.

I know this has been stated before, but people still seem to think there must be some kind of connection between RRD and a common rose they don't like and/or a type of gardening (inorganic) that they don't like. They are confusing their own prejudices with causation. WRONG, WRONG, WRONG.

Sorry, but I get irritated when posters keep on passing around false rumors. I'll be quiet now--OK?

Kate

Confusing personal prejudices, preferences and perceptions with causation and facts is not limited to roses. Tho I have wondered if my cats know something about vacuum cleaners that I don't know.

I agree with your cats.

I think the reason why Knock Outs are blamed for spreading RRD is the same reason Multiflora is blamed: there is a lot of both of them out there. Nobody keeps an eye on the wild multiflora or gets rid of a plant promptly if it gets RRD so mites have plenty of time to eat and breed on the plant and spread to other plants. The same is true of public KO plantings. The people who plant them probably don't check on them often and even if they do, they probably don't recognize RRD or know to get rid of the plant. I have not heard many claims that KO is more susceptible to RRD.

Please advise if there is a better forum to pose this question. On another forum I mentioned that a particular rose grower in the south was no longer shipping to California out of an abundance of caution. This was in response to someone who was looking for a particular hard to find old tea. There was some back and forth about this. I am involved in helping out in a public rose garden currently being established north of Sacramento (no RRD that I know of here). The main financial donor is wanting roses that are not available locally but are available in some states that have reported RRD. Should I be cautious in recommending that we buy these roses from states that are reporting outbreaks? I realize this might be a loaded question.

Marymm2, hopefully Ann from TN (StillAnn) will pop in to address your question. I've ordered a few roses from nurseries around the country, hoping that the plants are safe, but I've declined generous offers from private gardens in potentially infected areas. I'm curious to hear more opinions on this topic. Carol

Thank you, I too have ordered this year from another online nursery this year for my own garden. The two were bare root and so far they are leafing out normally.

You could try posting the specific question with "RRD" in the title. That might get Ann's attention. Carol

Hi,

This is a hard question to answer. If a nursery can ship to Californian, and IF they grow their plants in greenhouses/glass houses, the odds of transport of contageons (any contageons) are much lower.

I would never (in this world as things are now) plant a newly arrived plant of any kind in an established garden. I wait and grow them a couple of weeks on our passive solar porch.

The other thing I wouldn't do (and don't do) is order from some uninspected growers in the east who aren't even listed as sellers with their state departments of agriculture. I don't buy roses through e-bay.

Buying for a public garden, I'd contact the state ag folks where you are contemplating buying , explain the situation and your hesitance, and ask if they inspect that particular nursery and what their inspection results are.

In Tennessee the USDA and the state have (at least in the past) published a list of inspected and approved nurseries.

I hope this helps.

Ann

I have had great plants from ARE and I know RRD is in Texas.

Thank you Ann. These are very helpful suggestions. Many of these roses are chosen "memory" roses being dedicated to a loved one with a plaque attached or are favorites of the donor. We have done pretty well so far with a local nursery ordering for us but at times we have to research on our own. This garden is also becoming a wedding venue. The idea of isolating after purchasing and checking inspections are things we can do. I have had healthy roses from ARE too Sheila.

There are some things one can do to mitigate the potential for infections and contagion when buying roses. Buy dormant bare and washed roots plants, dip in fungicide, insecticide and miticide mix solution on arrival, quarantine the plant for some time in a pot, promptly and safely dispense packaging on arrival.

What Nik writes is good, but isn't enough for systemic problems, that is, problems that persist inside the plant.

An example is Downey Mildew which according to juried scientific publications can remain dormant inside a plant until the the conditions are 'right' for it to flourish.

Rose Rosette can be carried inside dormant canes without the presence of vectors. The known vector is one species of Eriophyid mite.

What is bothersome with a single known vector is that there are thousands of eriophyid mite species known and (in the estimation of one expert) probably tens of thousands that haven't been described, or even seen, yet.

Taking a systemic disease, in the case of RRd/RRV an emaravirus into a new environment, is the danger than another host may be a vector.

Yes, where's the science? This is from The Dallas Morning News, Nov. 2016. "Howard Garrett Organic Answers" headline below. Look out, Martha! We're all in the handbasket. Carol

This Regular Organic Treatment is Keeping Rose Rosette Disease at Bay.

What a crock. As if organic gardening practices are the "cure" for RRD. This guy is just working hard to sell his brand.

I lived in Dallas thirteen years ago when he was just starting out. Can't believe he has lasted this long. Texas A&M research station must find him highly annoying with this RRD nonsense.

The following comment was made in an earlier non garden.web thread:

"Joann Woy • a year ago

I have observed that rose canes growing thru galvanized wire fence do not
seem to be badly affected by RRV. Using that as my starting point, I drove zinc
galvanized nails into the base of each major stem of my roses. I saw a
substantial improvement. Roses that were not affected did not get RRV; roses
that were in the earliest stages were in many cases able to fight off the RRV. I
have no scientific proof this works, but it might be worth a try. Zinc is known
to inhibit some viruses; I think it works in this case. I would welcome some
controlled experiments testing this theory."

http://www.finegardening.com/rose-rosette-disease-what-do-when-you-get-it

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H. Kuska comment: What first came to my mind was that there are some reports that zinc helps with the cold virus.

http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/common-cold/expert-answers/zinc-for-colds/faq-20057769

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I looked for scientific papers that support the suggestion. This is
one:

Title: "The ameliorating effect of zinc on symptoms of phyllody virus (strawberry green-petal) in white clover"

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1744-7348.1963.tb03693.x/full

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

AND one that is so - so.

Title: "Heavy metal soil contamination delays the appearance of virus-induced symptoms on potato but favours virus accumulation"

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03235400600627791

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

And an explanation of what may be happening.

Title: "COMPLEMENTARY RESULTS OF LUMINESCENT AND TRANSMISSION ELECTRON MICROSCOPY PROVIDE STRIKING EVIDENCE OF HEAVY METAL IONS' EFFECT ON THE FORMATION OF AGGREGATES OF TOBACCO MOSAIC VIRUS VIRIONS BOTH IN VITRO AND IN VIVO."

https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=%22COMPLEMENTARY+RESULTS+OF+LUMINESCENT+AND+TRANSMISSION+ELECTRON+MICROSCOPY+PROVIDE+STRIKING+EVIDENCE+OF+HEAVY+METAL+IONS%27+EFFECT+ON+THE+FORMATION+OF+AGGREGATES+OF+TOBACCO+MOSAIC+VIRUS+VIRIONS+BOTH+IN+VITRO+AND+IN+VIVO.%22&btnG=&hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C36

H. Kuska comment: The small +2 zinc ion may be forming a dimer by combining with 2 units of virus with each contributing a +1 hydrogen ion position.

Another cold virus report.

See: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/05/170511095151.htm