More HVX

[jody]

I have a bed under 2 dwarf apple trees. The only 2 hosta that were in that bed were Parhelion and Sum and Substance. The S&S is about 7 years old. The Parhelion would have been 4 this year.

Last spring I noticed the odd coloration on Parhelion, after being in the yarden for 3 years with no symptoms. Watched it for a while and determined it was HVX So... I knew it needed to be dug and burned. I carefully dug it up, after gently tying the S&S leaves up so as not to damage them and risk spread. All went well... I thought. Watched the S&S for the rest of the year and looked great.

Well a few weeks ago I noticed the S&S getting the funky coloration

I assume that there must have been damaged roots from Parhelion that infected it? I am pretty positive the leaves on S&S were not damaged during the dig. I am sooo bummed!

I'll need a backhoe to get that S&S out of there. I'd like to wait until it goes dormant so it will be easier and I won't have any damaged leaves to risk spread. But... I'm a little nervous about leaving it there for the remainder of the season. At least there are no other hosta in that bed or in very close proximity and I never cut scapes down.

The scariest part is for someone that is not familiar with HVX could inadvertantly infect every hosta they have, by either cuttings scapes or damaged leaves etc and not knowing they should be disinfecting/wiping after every cut.

On another note: I've only been out plant shopping once this year. About 3 weeks ago I finally got time to go to one of my favorite and reputable nurseries. Yep... they had hosta that were clearly infected with HVX, striptease and S&S. They have quite a large variety of hosta but those were the only 2 varieties that clearly showed symptoms. I spoke with the manager of the hosta department who was very interested and did pull those 2 varieties with assurance that she would read up on it and "take it from there".

So after NOT buying a single hosta I stopped at another favorite nursery on the way home. Not a very large nursery, and not a large selection of hosta (or perennials ) but a nice place. Yep... a whole bunch of infected Blue Cadets

I also keep records of where all my hosta come from, either where purchased or who traded etc. The Parhelion came from a hosta nursery in Maine. I have also had to discard last year, a Birchwood Parkys Gold that was received in a trade 2 years ago. Fortunately, that one was never planted in the ground.

So it seems like to me that HVX is now everywhere. I am so dissapointed and frankly, afraid to purchase (or trade for) any new hosta from anywhere! I hope I have better luck with the nurseries/vendors in Ohio at the convention next week, but you can bet I WILL be asking them if they are familiar with HVX and if they can gurantee their plants to be virus free before making ANY purchases.

[wholyhosta]

Jody

Can you post a photo of your S & S infected leaves?

Brenda

[Chris_W]

Hi Jody,

Here are my thoughts about this, but it is just speculation.

In all the time you had S&S and Parhelion together, do you think there was any chance of cutting down leaves, such as from frost or hail, or even in the fall to clean them up? Have you ever had animals munching on leaves?

When you mentioned last year that your Parhelion was infected I was very concerned as this variety, as far as I know, is only being done out of tissue culture and at the time you bought yours would have been out of the some of the first TC runs. So when you mentioned it last year I got thinking that it might have caught it from something else in your garden.

Now I'm thinking that the Sum and Substance may have been infected all along and just never showed symptoms and that your Sum & Substance spread it to the Parhelion. I'm getting more and more reports of giant clumps of Sum & Substance suddenly showing the infection.

We have Sum & Substance that were field grown in Michigan at Sawyer Nursery and I had been told that it was grown from their own plant stock that they have had for years and years. But after hearing reports of 5 and 6 year old clumps suddenly showing the virus I've stopped selling Sum & Substance completely and am watching them very closely. So far they look fine...

Good luck getting that big plant out.

Chris

[jody]

wholy, I'll try to get a pic later.

Thanks for the thoughts Chris. I guess it is possible that S&S was the "carrier" and infected Parhelion. I just hadn't thought that, since I've had it for so many years with no symptoms, and Parhelion was the first to show any symptoms. I guess HVX is still somewhat too "new" to know for sure that symptoms could take much longer than 3 years to show/develop. Man!!! That is a scary thought!

and Chris... Thank YOU for being so on top of this. I sure wish other folks (nurseries especially) were as concerned and knowledgable about it as you take the time to be.

[thy]

Jody

Your storry scares the heck out of me, just told a Danish friend to be very careful when she dug up her 4 year old Regal Splendor, there was lots of other hostas in the area and it was easy to break several roots, making the virus happy

Chris ... how many yeard for S and S to show the virus ???

When I walk´my garden I am prepared to see a virused plant.... 2 years ago they was the "No problem plants"

Would it be better to add a black ugly plastic bag over it and then wait for it to die ??? before you dig it up ???

Pia