New to gardening. Huge hosta is brown and holey. What do I do?

13 years ago

I am a new homeowner and new to gardening. I inherited a very large hosta (at least 4 feet in diameter or larger), not sure what the exact variety is. About 1/3 to 1/2 of the hosta is sickly, brown, and quite a few of these leaves have holes on them. I browsed the Hosta forum and saw that hostas are prone to slugs, so I went out late at night to check but didn't see any (not sure exactly what slugs look like, though, but there were no obvious slugs there anyway!). It is possible that the hosta is getting too much sun - we are having a very hot summer and the hosta is only partially shaded.

I have no clue what the problem is or how to fix it. Should I cut off all the brown/holey leaves, leave them alone, or what? They look terrible but I'm afraid cutting off so much of the plant will hurt it. Should I just hedge-trim the whole thing and level it to the ground, and hope it does better next year? Any suggestions as to the diagnosis or the cure? Thanks for any tips.

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Comments (5)

gayle0000
13 years ago
The symptoms of "brown and holey" without a photo are pretty vague...but they are also pretty common!

Don't cut it down. Seriously. Just leave it alone. Hostas aren't like other perennials in that way where you can cut them back and they will be bushier or better.

If you want to get rid of it...just dig it up, don't bother with trimming or leveling.

Holes are likely from slugs or some kind of other damage (hail, twigs). Brown is likely from not enough water, burn, or something common like that.

We are at the time of year where the hostas are going for the down turn of the growing season...and the hottest, driest time too. If the brown leaves are crispy & break up in your hand, you might want to cut those parts off. If there's flexibility to them, just leave them be.

Post a pic for better ideas. It's likely fine & just needs some TLC next year. It's also helpful when we can see overall site conditions (light, surroundings, etc.)
Gayle
ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
13 years ago
increase water significantly

it sounds like its going summer dormant from lack of water

ken
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thisismelissa
13 years ago
Gayle put it quite nicely.
Give it lots of water.
Next spring, you'll be thrilled with how lovely it is. And at that time, you'll want to start your slug control measures to prevent the holes.
At this time, you might be able to kill some of the big mama slugs before they lay eggs, but you're not going to repair the ones you have.
ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
13 years ago
i forgot.. it might also be a tree root issue complicating the water issue ...

what kind of tree are they under??? some trees are so aggressive in stealing water.. that hosta eventually decline under them ...

the fact that you describe a large hosta.. SEEMS to indicate that the tree is PROBABLY NOT the issue .... but you should figure out what kind of trees are in the area .....

like any other plants.. intense deep watering .. infrequently.. is better than a hand spray from the hose ... you need water down in the root zone.. not on the leaves only ...

ken
idiothe
13 years ago
zone 6... like everybody said, deep watering... like an inch twice a week... probably going into early dormancy like Ken said due to heat and low moisture...

and about the trimming - leaves with holes in them are still feeding the plant, but if you have some really dried up ugly brown ones, you can remove those while leaving the rest of the plant better looking and still growing.

do not fertilize - you don't want to encourage growth in this stressed plant.

Final note - has it flowered yet? If it hasn't flowered, increased water might lead to another flush of leaves... more likely, it has flowered already in which case the growth that is taking place is important and valuable but you won't see it - after flowering, the plant switches to building up its root system for next year...

New to gardening. Huge hosta is brown and holey. What do I do?

Comments (5)

gayle0000

ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5

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thisismelissa

ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5

idiothe

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