Well, since this thread is back at the top again, I might as well give an update. We removed the pinkie (I think I said that above) but left all the other roses. They all seem fine - the canes on the meidiland greened up as they matured and the knockouts look fine as well. (I realized that I planted them WAY too close together though - in only a year they've at least doubled in size!) We bushhogged the fields and had them sprayed with 2-4-D last week. That should take care of the multiflora in our fields. We still have some on the bank out by the end of our driveway and at least one of them is definitely infected with RRD (it's the one I sent samples to the state ag lab from). I can't spray that one because it's surrounded by plants I want to keep, so I guess I'll have to dig it out. Gotta get to that one of these days. Maybe I'll get out there with some aquanet and wilt-pruf to try to contain the mites before the hot weather. I decided not to spray any pesticides. I did put the wiltpruf on my roses before bushhogging - I hope it worked because it royally screwed up my blooms - on every single rose the blooms are messy and look half dead before they even open (buds that formed since I sprayed the wilt-pruf look normal again so I know it was the wilt-pruf that did it). I also tried covering them with painter's dropcloths and sheets during the actual bushhogging process but the wind kept blowing them askew (uncovering half the bush) so that was probably pointless. At this point, I'm just keeping an eye on things as best I can. I got ambitious this year and put in a big veggie garden which took longer to prepare than I thought - we just got the plants in 2 weeks ago - and so I'm way behind on my weeding/mulching in my landscape beds. (BTW, does anyone know why the leaves of my peppper plants are curling and turning yellow?) Hopefully I'll get to pay more attention to the roses soon. I'll have to, because in another couple days, it should be time to start beetle-picking....

I wish I could give the person who came up with the bright idea of using RRD as a multiflora control method a good screaming at. It makes as much sense as cutting the rodent population by giving them the plague. I'll put in a plug for Rosa carolina, which last I heard, was still not getting RRD, and is an attractive and fragrant rose, and some strains have a litt;le rebloom. Likewise for R. californica and Burnet roses. Rosa palustris and setigera should be safe picks, though strictly once-bloomers. Aside from switching to wild American roses such as those, there's not much you can do, unless your can talk all of your neighbors into adopting a sane multiflora control method (e.g., bulldozer). Virtually all garden roses, no matter how disease resistant they may be otherwise, are vulnerable, whether they're OGRs or moderns, as are Eurasian wild roses and even many American wild roses. I suppose you could try Baltimore Belle, Souvenir de Brod, Commander Gillette or Bonica, since the latter has shown at least *some* resistance, and the others are hybrids of resistant species. This post was edited by ffff on Sun, Nov 2, 14 at 15:28

Nchomegarden, my success rate by cutting the cane out is also about 50%.... with infections that I find in the summer. With infections I find in new Spring growth, I've lost 100%. I think the infection that shows in the first growth of Spring happens in late summer/early fall, but it's been sitting there all autumn, winter and spring, then POW! By the time it shows up visually, it's too late, it's systemic. But yours is showing symptoms in what I call "the window of hope", lol. I'd cut the cane down as far as you can trace it, even under the soil if that's where it originates. Then you'll have to watch it like a hawk. It probably won't present more symptoms until next year, but if it has another flush of pre-winter growth, it might. At the first sign it's still infected, get rid of it, because it's a goner.

I think getting rid of an RRD infected plant quickly is one of the most important things. If you just cut out an infected cane , waiting to see if the rest of the plant might make it, you are putting all the rest of your plants at risk for that one plant. Dollar wise it's risking maybe thousands of dollars for a $20 plant. I'd just get rid of it. If you did try to save it or weren't sure it was rrd you could at least cut back drastically the rest of the plant and observe any new growth. I sterilize my pruners often. There is no evidence RRD is spread by pruners but I don't think all the studies have been done yet and I err on the side of caution. I spray fungicides and wonder sometimes if they make the plants unappealing to the mites. I had a first case of rrd about 17 years ago and have lost somewhere around 17 to 20 plants in 17 years. To me that is not a huge number in that amount of time. It didn't spread like wildfire, and usually adjacent roses were not affected. I thought Avid was effective against the rrd mite. I think Cygon 2E is no longer in production but was considered effective . I sprayed that once or twice but the toxicity of it scares me. If you are given cuttings from someone, I'd ask them if they know how to identify rrd and I'd ask them to let you know if a plant you received cuttings from later comes down with rrd. If you take cuttings from a plant in your own yard that later comes down with rrd I'd throw out all the cuttings if taken that year. If you get rid of an rrd plant I'd bag it up immediately rather than just put it out for the yard debris removers. There seem to be more mites on a plant infected with rrd so you don't want those to disperse. One time I sprayed an infected plant with miticide and hairspray as well, in order to kill or immobilize the mites before removing it. Maybe that was overkill. I'd wash clothes after contact with an rrd plant and not work in the garden until I'd taken a shower. I also sterilize my shovel after getting rid of rrd roots.