Again, I ask: where is malcolm manners when you need him?

(I don’t understand!)

Thank you so much, Moses. I’d never heard of bacterial wetwood before. I’ll pay this rose bush extra attention this year and hope for the best.

He

https://www.gardenweb.com/discussions/1703503/great-rosarians-of-the-world-2013#n=1

knows about this stuff, and sometimes comments here.

But now I wonder if Moses did not mentor him.

Bacterial Wetwood is frequently encountered on woody trees. Orchardists see it occur on their trees from time to time. Really bad cases on trees will cause the oozing sap to stain the bark of the trunk or branch, especially when originating in limb crotches. Gravity pulls the sap flow downward often making a quite noticeable often shiny dark stain.

The sweet tasting and aromatic oozing sap attracts insects who eat it, and the sap can ferment to make alcohol and a nasty smelling concoction caused by fungus growth and secondary bacterial infections, although neither of which the fungi nor secondary bacteria were the original invading vector. They are just opportunists, developing on the oozing sap after the original bacteria started the Wetwood symptoms.

Rose bushes are semi woody; thereby having the advantage of growing new, healthy, uninfected canes, especially basal canes, in fighting Bacterial Wetwood. These fresh basal canes emerging from their woody crowns continually rejuvenate the bush.

An infected bush section ages to its mature state then dies naturally. The Bacterial Wetwood infection may have died off before then, but if not it will surely die off then as the bush goes on producing replacement, fresh healthy growth.

Be careful not to prune anything away in the affected area until you are sure the bacterial infection has died and ceased to ooze sap. A dead infection will look dry and crusty, not wet looking. The bush does this naturally as it responds to good care and ideal growing conditions, especially good nutrition.

Trees, having trunks are not so well endowed in dealing with Bacterial Wetwood as roses are. Trees just have to, "grin and bear it."

Moses

Thank you Moses for this education — it’s really helpful to understand the problem! I’m planning on fertilizing for the first time this year around Valentine’s Day (zone 10a), I’ll cross fingers that this little bush sends up a new basal cane and really starts to thrive this year.