This is what I've done thou I'm not sure what's best. I pulled off dead leaves until I either reach healthy leaves or smelly mush. You can till if it's bad bottom of fan feels soft. In that case I'll cut the fan off if crown is yellowish or brown it's got crown rot. Disinfect cutters ( I use lysol mixed with water in a spray bottle) and move on to the next fan. This way you can see how much is bad. I believe digging it up is best with crown rot. That way you can separate any good fans dip them in bleach solution rinse and replant. Some of mine had only a couple of bad fans I cut bad fans off as far down as possible and treat without digging and this usually works fine. One last week needed every fan cut off but I didn't dig it up because everything in garden is so stressed and I didn't what to cut roots of plants close by. So treated it while still in place. I'm seeing little bits of green and have my fingers crossed. I really like my south seas and even thou it can be replaced it takes a good three years to get a good nice clump. Good luck, hope you can save it. Pat

Good morning Katrina! Cotton root rot is a fungal infection of the soil for which there is no well-known chemical treatment. It is very persistent in the soil and pretty much wiped out the cotton crop once grown in many southern states. Millions of dollars have been spent studying it, but no real solution has been found. One researcher at Texas A&M has had some success in recent years with a combination of encapsulated (slow-release) nitrogen fertilizer in combination with certain commercial fungicides and the addition of various minerals he has found to be deficient in soil infected with cotton root rot. One reason cotton root rot is such a problem is that it is able to lie dormant in the soil for a long time, perhaps many decades. The best solutions are to try to acidify your soil, since it thrives in soils with a pH of 7.0 to 8.5. I have had some success in controlling it, but not eliminating it, by working large amounts of compost, peatmoss, greensand and other amendments into the soil. Using 1 lb. of ammonium sulfate per 100 square feet of soil twice annually helps, but there is no guarantee. Improving drainage also helps, but does not eliminate the fungas. I don't know if hot compost would help. I tried it one year with fresh cow manure, and all I got was every weed known to mankind. :) One of the main treatments for cotton root rot in areas where field crops are grown is to grow various monocots, like sorghum and corn, and till them into the soil once they are mature. This seems to help slow down, but not completely eliminate, the fungal disease. It is not a practical solution for the average landscape, though. Growing up in Texas where the main crop was once cotton, and my daddy's family were once cotton farmers, I knew all about cotton root rot long before I experienced it firsthand myself. When I lived in Fort Worth, I listened to Neil Sperry's radio gardening show from the time he began it in the late 1970s to the time I moved here. Countless times I heard him diagnose certain types of sudden plant death as cotton root rot, and most of the time the gardeners involved simply didn't want to accept his diagnosis--I assume because none of us wants to have a disease in our gardens for which there is no simple cure! When I began planting here and had cotton root rot problems, I was just sick about it. Over the years I have worked hard to improve the soil in the area where I have had the problems, but the cotton root rot still rears its ugly head every now and then. With regards to composted cotton burs, I have never heard of any problems with them being a carrier of cotton root rot. As far as I understand it, the cotton root rot attacks and destroys the roots of affected plants but does not travel up into the plant system. Infected plants die because they can no longer receive nutrition via their now-decimated roots. I think it unlikely that you could ever find any trace of cotton root rot in composted cotton burrs. Cotton is still successfully grown in the High Plains of Texas, and one of the by-products of that plant would be the composted cotton burs. I believe no one in Texas would process and sell those burs if there was any chance whatsoever that cotton root rot could be in them. One of the leading researchers in the area of Cotton Root Rot is Texas A&M University. In reading their data, I have never seen any concern expressed about cotton root rot being transferred via the burs. Cotton root rot seems to be more of a problem in parts of Texas than in Oklahoma, but that doesn't help you if you are in the part of Oklahoma where is has reared its ugly head. Hope this info helps. Dawn

Hi everyone, wasn't sure I was going to be able to do this swap. Have been sick but am much better. Add my name to the list. Haves: white and purple bleeding heart vine, hidden ginger, white butterfly ginger, pine cone ginger, unknown variegated ginger, bengal tiger canna, yellow/orange canna, black eyed susie vine, red spider lilies, red and yellow crown of thorns cuttings, red/coral shrimp plant, yellow shrimp plant, prayer plant, swiss cheese plant, green and white wandering jew, kitten ear jew, purple and gray jew, green wandering jew, swedish ivy, goldfish plant, night blooming cactus, rick rack cactus, mother of thousands, hen and chicks green, pony tail palm, texas star hibiscus, luna blush hibiscus, aloe vera, tricolor sedum, mother in law tongue, mexican petunia, red candy apple iceplant, elephant sedum, coral reef sedum, pink pursalane, double yellow/pink pursalane, spiral staircase sedum, variegated tropical hibiscus, kerria japonica rose double yellow, red/coral honeysuckle cuttings, silver squill, cast iron plant, drummonds pink phlox, christmas cheer sedum, pink abelia cuttings, curly leaf begonia, different unnamed begonias, blue hydrangea, old cactus (makes yellow flower), unnamed sedum and succelents, red hot poker lily Wants: yellow spider lily, variegated candy apple ice plant, cajun hibiscus, mosquito plant, variegated mosquito plant, mandarin plant, pink lily of the valley, walking iris, pineapple lily other that white, desert rose, yellow butterfly bush, sedums and succelents I don't have, blood lily, hoyas, variegated lipstick plant, begonias I don't have

The primary problem I had was rhizoctonia root rot. It's contagious. That didn't show up in the first plant I sent to the Texas A&M plant diagnostic labratory, because I had bleached it. (Bleach in a 10% solution is sometimes used on roots.) So, the only thing they saw was the root knot nematodes. When I sent in a second specimen, they diagnosed it and gave me some suggestions for treating it. When that didn't work, I called the county agent. He said that rhizoctonia is not very treatable and I would probably lose most of my hosta. I did. So, the nematodes weren't that big a problem in my situation, it was the fungus. You will note though, the beach solution did not kill the nematodes. They spread in water, so if the infected plant has been there a while, they've probably already spread. Not all plants are equally susceptible. About 10% of my hosta survived. The usual treatment for nematodes is heat. On commercial farmers fields, they bring in these heat/steam treatments and treat a whole field. Hosta are susceptible to foliar nematodes. the usual treatment for those is dig up and trash the plant and then pour boiling water in the hole. One place I would go for advice is the facebook page on hosta diseases. I'm not sure she still does, but Carol Brashear used to moderate that page. She and her partner are very active in hostadom (they do the hostalibrary.org), so that might be a good resource. That's about all I can tell you. All the other information I have and the resources I used are detailed above. But again, the nematodes weren't my big problem. bkay