We used rebar as a basis for rose trellis, now the bushes look awful. What happened?

Question

Before we put the rebar in, the rose bushes were lush and full of flowers. Too much iron?? Any ideas?

Answer 1

Iron toxicity is very rare. It can occur in sandy, acidic soils but the pH must slip below 5.0. In this case the presence of soluble iron salts can prevent the uptake of manganese. Symptoms are dead spots on the leaves. This appears first as lots of yellow pin prick sized lesions all over the leaf surface. The spots then turn brown as they die from the center out. Finally the whole leaf is brown and dead. If you haven't used soluble iron salts [greensand, or products like Bonide's Iron Sulfate] and your pH is not very acidic it can not be the iron rust from the rebar. Ferric iron (rust) is insoluble unless the pH is well below 6 and is only very slightly soluble at pH6.
Photo at http://www.priva.ca/images/nutdif-irontox.jpg
Soil pH http://home.howstuffworks.com/preparing-garden-soil2.htm

I use rebar or welded, rusting steel with all my larger roses, in acidic soil, with no problems. Belleview Botanic Garden had sets of heavy guage custom steel bars made for their large freestanding shrub roses so I copied it using rebar. The one difficullty is to keep the fragile canes from damaging themselves on the rough metal. Where ever I tie a cane off I pad it from the rebar with dark tape over thin foam or a wrap of velcro with fuzzy backing between the cane and the bar. I didn't do this the first year and several canes were badly damaged in the winter winds and died eventually. This is the only problem I have encountered with this and well over twenty of the roses have steel in the ground. I also use it for beans and tomato cages with no problems.
Here are some pages to help ID possible alternative causes for your plants distress.

Insects and Diseases: http://www.planetnatural.com/site/xdpy/kb/growing-roses.html
Controlling Rose Diseases
http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/3000/3063.html

Answer 2

You may have disturbed the roots. I don't think iron has anything to do with it. Could just be a coincident and something else like a disease could be effecting your roses. Can you tell us exactly what is happening? What do they look like? If you did disturb the roots you may still be in luck and your rose could return to normal. Roses will usually take a fair amount of abuse.

Could it be that you have a climber or rambler that only flowers once in the season. Is it the flowers that you are missing or is there a problem with the leaves? Please, more info.

Answer 3

iron toxicity can happen.. further, the iron could be ill-affecting your soil pH. If your soil is acidic, this could be the problem.

More likely though, you have a fungus or aphids or another malady that plagues rose bushes. They can be awfully fussy.

Answer 4

I would definitely be suspicious of too much iron. If nothing else, it can bind the soil.

Answer 5

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Answer 6

Maybe the heat of the metal.