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virus x? help!

10 years ago

I just got some giant hosta pieces from my aunt. I put the first giant clumps in today as one big hosta, but after putting them in I was looking at the foliage, which before I thought was just wilted and whatever from being transplanted yesterday, but now I think it has virus x!

a close up:

I have another giant clump I was going to plant, which looks like it might have it a little as well. Should I throw it out instead? What about the big one I just planted?

I was going to put them on either side of the hydrangea and move the hostas on the left to another location, but now I think maybe I shouldn't plant the other big hosta with the virus.

What do you think? What would you do if you were in my position?

Help! :( I called my aunt and mentioned the virus, but she didn't know what I was talking about.

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Comments (4)

arylkin
Original Author
10 years ago
I've been googleing more pis and I think I do have a plant infected. I'll attach more pics below. Should I dig up the plant and pitch it? Is there anything I can do to cleanse the soil? Bleach?

Can someone confirm? I hate to lose such a big hosta! Also, I'm worried about the others that came from her house, they look fine though, but I'm worried about contamination...
Babka NorCal 9b
10 years ago
I would carefully lift it back out keeping all the roots in tact and put it in a bag with the leaves open to the air and tuck it in the shade. It will be fine there for awhile as long as the soil is kept moist (not wet). In the meantime get some test strips to be sure. It doesn't look too good but I am not an HVX or other virus expert.

-Babka
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Hi Jakki, I've seen roundup sprayed hostas come back a year later, so while it is worth a try to kill the plants with chemicals it isn't a guarantee, and then those roots could be down there contaminating things for quite a while. From the latest research (they aren't saying much yet) they are saying that HVX stays viable in the soil for months, if not years, from a contaminated location, so the recommendation is to not replant hostas in a spot that previously had HVX. Pretty scary stuff, if you ask me! There was always the possibility of HVX spreading by contaminated dirt particles (using a coarse contaminated sample to grind HVX into hostas is part of the inoculation process in research) and it seems dirt can hold on to HVX for quite a while. Also think heavy dust storm - if the plants get wind damage, bits of HVX could be floating around the garden. One major issue I see is that people continue to think that the green "ink bleed" is the only symptom. People post pictures here pretty regularly with HVX infected plants in the background and I don't even think they realize it. Many plants get distorted leaves, but others get NO symptoms at all. It's like cockroaches... If you see one you can be guaranteed there are others lurking about, even though you don't see them. There are millions of HVX infected plants out there, and it will take the effort of all of us to get rid of this huge problem. Chris
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without a doubt.. its frost or freeze damage ... these warm zone peeps dont really know what it is all about.. lol ... white tissue is the weakest and usually affected .. if you wish.. call it cold damage.. you seem to be fixated on some certain temp .. whether a frost or a freeze .. its irrelevant.. its was cold enough to harm the leaf ... thats all you need to know .. ignore it for a month ... even a damaged leaf will photosynthesize ... in a month.. remove the worst 2 or 3 leaves... you will be surprised... how few removed will make all the difference.. you wait.. because you will do much more harm.. trying to take care of it now ... ken PS: in my collection of 1500 ... in any given event.. i can have .. just as an e.g. ... 10 affected hosta.. spread over 2 acres... why this one and not others.. who knows ... you will hurt your head trying to make rhyme nor reason from it ....
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Melissa is right, don't dig yet. You want to be sure it's not just frost damage. Wait for a new flush of leaves and see what they look like. You could also get some test strips if you want peace of mind. Don't be sharing plants with anyone or moving stuff around until you know. Remember the virus is spread by the plant sap, so wash your tools with 10% bleach if you work on or around these plants. Personally I wouldn't touch them with tools until I was sure. The virus will need a wound, like a cut root, or scape in order to enter another plant. You should also know that the virus doesn't spread during the summer or fall. So you should wait until the plant is flowering anyway if you are going to remove it. Steve Here is a link that might be useful: June 2010 Summary Report on HVX
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The clamwin program did find some trojans but doesnt seem to have the capability to delete the infected files. by the way i am using windows XP home edition. I dont have the exact name of the virus but the the scan read as: F:\backup.bkf: Trojan.Counter.Bytverify FOUND F:\Documents and Settings\Ernest Barnett\Application Data\Explorer\ntbaache.exe: Trojan.PPDoor-2 FOUND F:\Documents and Settings\Ernest Barnett\Application Data\Sun\Java\Deployment\cache\javapi\v1.0\jar\Counters.jar-72df9b1d-4da5d3c7.zip: Trojan.Counter.Bytverify FOUND F:\Documents and Settings\Ernest Barnett\Application Data\Sun\Java\Deployment\cache\javapi\v1.0\jar\jar.jar-fcdb0fa-78cdf8c1.zip: Trojan.Counter.Bytverify FOUND F:\Documents and Settings\Ernest Barnett\Application Data\Sun\Java\Deployment\cache\javapi\v1.0\jar\loaderadv441.jar-6acb51d2-6d7243fb.zip: Java.ClassLoader.24564 FOUND F:\Documents and Settings\Ernest Barnett\Application Data\Sun\Java\Deployment\cache\javapi\v1.0\jar\loaderadv599.jar-5d941347-5efe90c8.zip: Java.ClassLoader.24564 FOUND F:\Documents and Settings\Ernest Barnett\Application Data\Sun\Java\Deployment\cache\javapi\v1.0\jar\menu.jr-4c5becd2-4dac79b4.zip: Java.ClassLoader.24564 FOUND
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ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
10 years ago
that plant.. is not worth a fraction of the cost of the test strips ...

for the $30 or 40 bucks the test would cost.. go buy mom and you a new hosta ...

get this one off the property .. sterilize your shovel .. and forget about the soil ..;. plant anything else there ...

and then go dig up moms ...

and clean her shovel also ...

you have a $5 hosta there.. dont go spending $25 to find out it is sick.. eh???

ken
arylkin
Original Author
10 years ago
I agree. Is there something I can do to the soil to protect it so I'm able to plant other hostas this spring?

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