It sure looks like it to me mrose.

Betty

I think it is.

Crown gall is not systemic, but localized colonies. You appear to have a series of aerial galls. Plants can be saved if the galls are all above the graft or crown. Prune well below the galls and disinfect the cut with copper fungicide if you have it, or any antibacterial agent that will stay put, such Lysol followed by antibiotic ointment. Disinfect the tool.

Avoid wounding the bark or roots of this rose or neighbors. Don't scratch around the roots.

Also, try using Galltrol or Gallex to prevent future crown gall. I think you have to apply in spring or fall but you better double check.

Hope you can save your rose!

Betty

Chances are the bacteria was always there. It's a natural soil bacteria that enters the plant through insect bites, mechanical damage, and other openings in the outer bark layer. I doubt your Carpet rose or the water runoff was responsible. The two in the third picture look like insect galls, not crown gall.
I'd carefully scrape off some of the material or cut off an infected cane and take it to your county extension agent or send it to a Texas A&M extension for positive ID.
Call for information on submitting specimens.
Infections I've had have been mostly confined to the root crown area, not on above ground stems. I've successfully cleaned them off and treated the infected area with anti bacterial ointment, followed by a 5% bleach drench of the planting area. I usually will plant a treated plant in a pot to observe. After it recovers I then transplant into the garden.
I've planted new plants in drenched soil immediately with good results.
In your case though, I'd get a positive identification before proceeding.
Texas has one of the best horticulture schools in the country. Because of the large rose industry in that state, they do a lot of work with rose diseases.

Carl,

While you are on, can you tell me about the red fuzzy gall that is after my rosa rubra? I read that they are prone to insect gall. I cut it off & we opened up one of the galls and sure enough there were wasp? larvae inside of it. I burned them in my outdoor chimenea.

Is there a way to prevent wasp type gall on my rosa rubra?

Thank you!

Betty

Thanks, everyone. I just went out and cut the side of the plant off that has the gall. Karl - I didn't read your post until after I had done this. It does look like there could possibly be a growth on the crown, but I'm not positive. Did you just scrape the growth off of yours? I just looked at the picture of crown gall and gall wasps (I think that's what you were talking about, Karl) on Baldo's page and out of those two, it definitely looks more like the crown gall. I'm thinking that I may dig it up and put it in a pot and do the bleach drench. I'm wondering if the roses I have to either side of it are in danger. Should I dig them up also and treat the soil?

Betty - Do you use the Galltrol on the plant or the soil?

Laurie

Laurie,

Apparently you paint the Galltrol on the galls themselves.

The Galltrol produces antibiotics toxic to the gall producing pathogens.

You paint it on the galls and cut surfaces in springtime & early summer.

Betty

I would definitely remove it. This is a bacterial infection, and it CAN be spread in propagation, or to other plants.

Jeri

Jeri - If I remove it, won't the bacteria still be in the soil and couldn't it still spread to the other plants? A part of me wants to try and save it because it's my favorite and another part of me thinks I should get rid of it and hopefully I will be able to find another one.

Laurie

The bacteria was, is, and will still be in the soil waiting for an injury to enter a plant. Careful pruning and planting practices that minimizes damage to the bush is the best prevention. Even then, a crack caused by freezing and thawing or excessive moisture, can be an entry point for the bacteria.
Were it mine and saving the plant was my first concern, I'd remove all above ground canes with galls. I'd check the roots and crown carefully and remove any galls, then treat the soil with a bleach drench.
Following is what I do with crown gall.

Dig up the bush and with a sharp knife remove all signs of the gall, including a little of the wood at the point of attachment. I pour alcohol over the wound then apply a little Wall*Mart generic human anti-bacterial ointment on it. I drench the soil in the area with a bleach solution. I pot the bush and watch it for one season. I've successfully eliminated the gall from a number of bushes this way..
Disinfect your tools when you are done.
Then stop worrying! Aside from destroying the bush, you've done all you can.
If the bush is too far gone I shovel prune it.
To avoid pieces of the infection spreading in the soil area I do this on newspaper that I can fold up and burn or place in the trash. I do not do it while the bush is still planted.

Thanks, Karl. I did manage to find one person that carries Debut, but they're sold out right now. I think I will follow your intructions and see if I can save it since there is a chance I can't replace it.

Laurie

I just sp'd The Fairy due to crown gall also, I didn't dare to plant anything in its place. I bought a huge container and planted different plants in it and placed it where the Fairy was.

Sorry about your rose
.

I've been fortunate in that all four galled roses we have had were grown in containers. All of them went into the trash.

I might work harder at it if the rose were irreplaceable, but not many are.

Jeri

I'm sorry, but I'm still not completely clear on something.
Will the bleach get rid of the bacteria in the soil or is it something that's present in most soils?

Laurie

The bleach will "temporarily" kill bacteria in the soil. Eventually the bacteria will return but by then your bush will have gotten established and any planting wounds will have healed. Crown gall is present in most all soils.
Like us, a healthy rose bush can fight off infections best.

Karl - Just one more question. If the bacteria is always in the soil, then is it okay to plant a new rose in that spot?

Laurie

Galltrol and Galltrex were designed to be dips to be used on roots before planting. They are bacteria that are supposed to colonize the roots and to keep Agrobacterium tubefaciens out of the plant.
When a plant has had the galls develop, the amount of A. tumefaciens in that soil increases because of the material produced by the gall.
There are a huge number of scientific papers out on crown gall now, because it is a serious problem. Rose rootstocks were searched for rootstock that was less susceptible to crown gall. There was no one good answer.

One interesting paper talks about injuring rose stems and innoculating them with tumefaciens; it reported that damaged areas closest to the soil were more prone to gall development than areas out on stems.

Marti, R et al. 1999 "Evidence of migration and endophytic presence of A. tumefaciens in rose plants" European Journal of Plant Pathology 105:39-50 reports among many other things "systemic and latent infections in rose."

And the spiny galls that bettym asks about are insect caused. If the insects aren't removed, the rose will have more galls year after year until the rose is severely damaged. The insects have preferences for certain roses, but as more people look at their roses, we see that the insects are settling for roses not thought to be their first choice.

I successfully treated a second year old Moonstone rose bush a few years back and so far have not had a recurrence of the grown gall.
I just cut off the offending part rather liberally to healthy tissue and that did the trick.
So far, so good as they say. The bush is still quite nice and growing/blooming well. There is hope to save your bush.
John

Laurie-- Karl recommended drenching the soil with 5% bleach solution and replanting. I have replanted successfully in untreated soil the following spring. It would be important to avoid wounding the roots.

Thanks! You know what really gets me. I've shovelpruned so many roses because I have a small yard and I want to absolutely love every rose that I have. This is the one rose I've never considered getting rid of.

Laurie

In the European paper I read, the author said crown gall is definitely systemic and that the plant should not be propagated. That's because the bacteria invades cells to make those galls grow, somewhat analagous to the way viruses invade cell to duplicate themselves. The paper also said that aerial galls are rare.

The cure was 3 years fallow soil or steaming the soil with water water over 130 degrees and keeping it hot for 10 minutes. Sounds scary.

Nice shots of those little galls. If you have any still around, take a look at them really closely with a hand lens and see if you see little drilled holes where wasps entered. One shot gives the impression of lots of holes. The crown of an older rose can be large and barky, but A. t. makes a big ugly misshapen mess you wouldn't mistake.
http://nu-distance.unl.edu/Homer/disease/hort/Rose/RoCrnGall.html

Here is a link that might be useful: Aerial crown gall of the rose

berndoodle - what does "fallow" soil mean? Also, is what I have, considered aerial galls? Does that mean it's on the upper branches instead of the crown? Hey I would be willing to try the hot water treatment if I could figure out how to keep the soil hot for 10 minutes. I already threw the cuttings with the galls aways, but I broke a piece off and it was just woody looking.

Laurie

I have a vedgetable garden close to where I had rose bushes that had gall. I am not sure what kind but had woody round balls on stems and by base. The bush closest to the garden has since been removed but there are others close by that probably will be removed also. Now I am concerned whether the tomatoes and cucumbers are good to eat. Could that be harmful to ingest food where the soil may be contaminated? Can I treat the soil with the bleach solution but even if I move the garden to another location can it still pick up the bacteria?

The gall bacteria is not harmful to humans. Eat your veggies. The worst that could happen would be you'd get a woody growth on your crown, LOL!