Is there a visible difference between frost damage puckering and early season HVX puckering?
I have a whole bunch of hostas here in MA that came up with odd looking puckering this spring. They did the same thing last year, too, and as the season progressed it dissipated, or at least it didn't end up being accompanied by vein bleeding. I decided towards the middle of summer last year it must not be HVX. Here it is again, and I think it might just be early season crinkling.
Does one produce puckers that go down, and the other produce puckers that go up, or something like that?
how to distinguish frost damage puckering from HVX
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LiquidFeet
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Chris_W
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Re: how to distinguish frost damage puckering from HVX
Hi there,
There are a couple things you can look for. First, if the eye is having trouble unfurling and comes out sort of bunched up and all wrinkly then this will cause the extreme puckering and wrinkling that is just from cold/frost, so watch the second flush of leaves. If you still see it, then there may be cause for concern. HVX bumps and collapsing also tends to follow parallel to the veins, and is very uneven. The crinkling from frost can be all over and won't have a distinct pattern that follows the veins.
The other thing to watch for is bubbling and separating tissue on the back of the leaf. If you see this, then there was cold damage that occurred and you can pretty much discount most any damage you see on those leaves. Just look at the back of the leaf. If you see some tissue separation, it was frosted. Then again, watch for the next flush of leaves to come out to see what those look like instead.
finally, if you really aren't certain, take a picture and post it here, or email it to me and I'll post if for you. You can send high resolutions pictures to me by email at hallsons@perennialnursery.com
Hope that helps a little!
Chris
There are a couple things you can look for. First, if the eye is having trouble unfurling and comes out sort of bunched up and all wrinkly then this will cause the extreme puckering and wrinkling that is just from cold/frost, so watch the second flush of leaves. If you still see it, then there may be cause for concern. HVX bumps and collapsing also tends to follow parallel to the veins, and is very uneven. The crinkling from frost can be all over and won't have a distinct pattern that follows the veins.
The other thing to watch for is bubbling and separating tissue on the back of the leaf. If you see this, then there was cold damage that occurred and you can pretty much discount most any damage you see on those leaves. Just look at the back of the leaf. If you see some tissue separation, it was frosted. Then again, watch for the next flush of leaves to come out to see what those look like instead.
finally, if you really aren't certain, take a picture and post it here, or email it to me and I'll post if for you. You can send high resolutions pictures to me by email at hallsons@perennialnursery.com
Hope that helps a little!
Chris
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LiquidFeet
- Posts: 25
- Joined: Jul 11, 2011 3:35 pm
- USDA Zone: 6
- Location: Boston north shore
Re: how to distinguish frost damage puckering from HVX
Thanks, Chris. That's helpful.
I split a huge number of hostas and built a big hosta bed three years ago. I had bought some hostas at Lowes to add to what I already had, and did not know about sterilizing my tools, so I'm watching carefully now. Very carefully. So far I haven't seen anything that's definitely HVX. I just wonder about that crinkling. It seems to be concentrated in one type of hosta (a NOID that I have tons of). The leaves are thinnish, and clearly suffer from the cold since they showed numerous translucent spots right after a genuine frost we had. But before that there was the crinkling, rampant.
I've got about 275 hostas in that bed. I don't want to find any signs of HVX, because if I see it then it's probably everywhere, given my vigorous splitting. If I continue to worry, I'll post pictures.
I split a huge number of hostas and built a big hosta bed three years ago. I had bought some hostas at Lowes to add to what I already had, and did not know about sterilizing my tools, so I'm watching carefully now. Very carefully. So far I haven't seen anything that's definitely HVX. I just wonder about that crinkling. It seems to be concentrated in one type of hosta (a NOID that I have tons of). The leaves are thinnish, and clearly suffer from the cold since they showed numerous translucent spots right after a genuine frost we had. But before that there was the crinkling, rampant.
I've got about 275 hostas in that bed. I don't want to find any signs of HVX, because if I see it then it's probably everywhere, given my vigorous splitting. If I continue to worry, I'll post pictures.