So sorry the nems have arrived. I know your busy but if you have a bit of time, please post pictures of nem infested hosta for the uninitiated.

They are starting now, hopefully I will stop them, but their damage right now is very minor. Much more damage in my garden is via the heat making crispy leaves. I have to see if my camera can show these small spots. A good explanation with pictures is at the American Hosta Society, see the link. Bernd

Here is a link that might be useful: leaf nematodes

Bernd - I have to give you credit for trying to treat for it. Last year I also had about four plants with nems. One was an old plant I thought I had "cured" - it was good the prior year. Two were new plants that may have either come with nems, or gotten them from neighbors. They were both planted along the back fence line where I've had problems in the past. The fourth was an old and loved hosta that had been fine before - it was also along that same line, though not near where other infected plants were or had been. I dug out all four, poured boiling water in the holes and threw out the plants.

About a week ago I found all the signs of nems in one of my newly purchased plants. This was planted in one of my front beds where I haven't had problems before. I didn't treat it - just got rid of it. It had two Lady's Mantles planted nearby which had brown areas just on the parts of the plants nearest the affected hosta. Couldn't find photos of what foliar nems did to Lady's Mantle and I was already thinking of getting rid of them (I have some spares in back) so I took them out with a lot of dirt and poured lots of boiling water in the hole. I'm looking for the nems on the other hosta I got from the same grower.

Then just yesterday I was checking my back fence line and I think I may be seeing early damage on a plant I've had for years that never had a problem. The damage isn't very pronounced yet, so I'll probably take one of the leaves off and see if I can see them with a magnifying glass.

I've come to accept that I'll still have them along my back fance line - though it's getting pretty sparse there because I keep taking plants out. But I really hope this new hosta has not spread the nems to my front garden. I know I should have kept the new hosta in a holding area, but I just bought too many this year.

Bernd, thanks for the link. Another article that I read some time ago stated that the nems do not live in the roots, that they enter the petioles and the leaves via the stomata. What I don't understand is how they overwinter if they are short-lived in the soil and if you remove all dead upper growth in the fall.

Ira,

They overwinter in the crown, then in the Spring they migrate to the leaves. They can also survive temps of -80, so winter is not a problem for them. If research could give us more information about the migration period, we might be able to control them more effectively. We do know that they need high humidity to make that migration. That's one of the reasons why overhead watering is not recommended for plants with nems.

There really is an excellent article by Bill Meyers on nems in the latest AHS online journal. Membership info is below.

Steve

Here is a link that might be useful: AHS Membership

Thanks for the info, Steve. I forgot about the "crown".

Bad Bad Bad, so I would have to throw out those beautiful plants. One of them is a mature Gold Standard which showed two leaves with white stripes several veins wide, looked like a mutation, but I counted them as nematodes for now, need to watch that plant. I forgot to say that I do not need a Sauna either in addition to a Gym with all that work and heat. This keeps the mind going in retirement.
Bernd

I was at my local garden center today being naughty and buying more Hosta (even though I have been warned) and I noticed Nems on their Liberty.

I called over an associate and showed her and she yanked the plants off the rack. I asked if they overhead watered and she said no so that was a relief.

Guess it is safe to assume they are now showing in PA 6b.

It was such a bummer too since the whole reason I went today was to grab a Liberty since they are having their summer perennial sale (buy 3 get one free).

Hallson spring order it is then.

Ludi

I saw nems at a local garden sale last Thursday. Zone 4b. I usually don't see them till end of July, at the earliest.

I've got them showing here, too. One hosta that has never shown any signs before and is not in the vicinity of any of the others that have had them. What's even more discouraging is that one of the small ones I heat treated in 2010 that looked clean last year now has them again- and has been in a pot with fresh soil since the treatment. So clearly the heat did work as I thought it did.

I'm sorry the m Merit didn't work, Bern. I used it on my Brunnera once this season for something else and was watching to see if it had any effect on the nematodes in their. I am starting to see them now on those leaves so I guess it did not work.

One thing I don't get- WHY can't they come up with something to kill these worms??? Something not crazy toxic to birds or whatever that resulted in the other stuff being taken off the market and made unavailable to home gardeners. This just seems like it should be a fixable problem....it's really aggravating.

One thing I've learned is this.

If the question starts with, "Why can't they ____________?"

The answer is almost ALWAYS .... MONEY!

In this case, the research and development would be extremely expensive and the return would be very small on that r&d. Think about how few people in the US really know or care that their hostas start to look like crap (at a time of year when they usually decline anwyway) because of these buggers.

Yes, we hate them, but we're left with the things on the market that work for other pests.

That's true, Melissa...but when the recommendation is "remove affected plant" that's just lame...especially because even doing so doesn't necessarily eliminate the problem in your garden. How many times have we heard, "once you've got them, they are virtually impossible to get rid of". That shouldn't be the case. They can get rid of parasitic worms in pets, why not in ornamentals. (because of course it's not just a hosta problem). And by the way, I'm actually testing out using a dog dewormer on a hosta! Yeah, it's a different type of roundworm, and probably won't work, but what the hell. Like I said, it's just aggravating

Two years ago we had the honor to visit the gardens of our current AHS President's gardens and a lesson about his hybridizing methods.

Very interesting, and it turned out fortuitious to us as his wife Marda had jUST convinced him that he must cull, so we ended up with several of Mr. Doug's 'culls', and we're sure you'd like to have any of them.

Now more to the point, Mr. Doug commented that, regarding Nemotodes, that it's not 'if, but when' you'd have them.

He provided us a sampling of a product of a 'systemic' nemicide' to ensure we were protected from the problem that may have come from his donations to our garden from his.

Now, however, after hours of internet searching, I find that this type of product is now 'banished' for us amateurs.

The Hosta world will be long 'you're now famous' to anyone who can find out how we can buy an effective 'nemacide'.

Challenge issued:

HH

HH, yes, if you read the literature online, the various. once available "nemacides" have "no place" with the lowly home gardener. So we're all supposed to pitch our plants that we've loved for years and just shrug about it?! Yeah, I don't get it.

I totally agree that they are inevitable...probably even more so if you plant other things along with your hosta, as most of us do. I think the ones I have came in with other perennials, for the most part. I plan on just living with them and complaining on the internet.

I read last year somewhere that foliar nematodes like all other nematodes stay in the soil, so putting a plant into the garbage would not help.

I hoped for better, but will continue using that Bayer insecticide with Merit, perhaps I caught the nematode cycle of hatching new eggs at the wrong time and I might end up with only small damage. One hosta person here told me that nems is part of hostas reaching fall and looking bad also for other reasons. My damage on hostas due to heat and insects is much much larger than those first indications of nematodes.
Bernd

Nems on a wide brim.

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