Hello all! I am hoping the resident foliar nematode experts can chime in on this.

I've had an outbreak of foliar nematodes on about 10-15 hostas this year; 5 on plants in the ground for 1-5 years, and the rest on hostas in pots. I have over 750 different varieties of hosta, about 150-200 in the ground, the remainder in pots. Point of info: about 80% of my collection is from mail-order vendors in the US -- some have strict policies on nems and hvx, others less so. Generally, for vendors with strict policy statements, I took their hostas on receipt as "clean-and-pure".

Up-front Confession:

I HAVE DONE EVERYTHING WRONG THAT I POSSIBLY COULD with regard to nems and HVX. I have crammed the pots in together for storage over the winter, I have left them too close together once leafed out and overhead watered with my hose/wand, and on and on and on. I tested any suspicious plants for HVX and have managed to keep that out of the collection entirely, as far as I know. But not so nems.

I am not looking to place blame or anything on any vendor, and I don't even know if any vendor is at "fault" (as in "shipped plants with nems"). I may just have had them in my yard, or in the 150+ cu-yd of superloam I've purchased, including this year, or the mulch, or my "dirt salad" (homemade potting mix for potting up mail-order hosta).... The other thing I've done is soak hostas from mixed vendors that I considered "clean-and-pure" together on arrival and pot them up at the same time, and watered them after potting all side-by-side.

Yep, pretty much everything that could be done incorrectly, I've done. Only more-so than normal folks!

So, this year I ordered hostas from a "clean-and-pure" vendor. I placed the order on June 14, 2015; the order arrived either just before or just after July 4, 2015. I'm north of Boston in Massachusetts, and it's been hotter than Hades here most of July and August. By the last week of August, I noticed classic, poster-child perfect symptoms of foliar nematode damage on 2-3 plants from this vendor, and suspicious evidence on a couple others from them, plus one plant in the ground ordered from them LAST year. Also, a couple hostas from other "clean-and-pure" vendors have suspicious nem damage, though I have to check to see if they are also from this year or from last year's purchases.

Here's my first question:

Is it possible/likely _I_ myself contaminated these on arrival this July and they show symptoms by the end of August? Or did the nems perhaps ARRIVE from the vendor already infected and it just took til the usual end of summer for the nems to SHOW?

Question 2:

Since I've soaked and watered and potted and snuggled together all these hostas without knowing they had nems, is it likely that any and all are infected with foliar nems?

I value all input I've read -- from Ken Adrian saying "no worries, who cares, just plant 'em, it'll be fine"; to Pietre and Berndt boiling water and spraying and soaking and disinfecting; to BKAY (maybe??) and others just putting them in trash bags and giving them the heave-ho. As BKAY I think stated, I too am not into the whole "chemistry-lab" approach to gardening; I wouldn't enjoy that. I still have enough OLDER uninfected hostas in my original beds from 5-8 years ago, and plenty of woodland perennials and shrubs to make beautiful gardens in the huge open spaces I created this year -- supposedly for all these potted hostas (rented a bobcat and mini-excavator and all.....). And I am seriously considering trashing all 550 potted hostas plus the couple infested ones in the ground. I've gone through several stages of "grieving" over the last 2 weeks or so, and I can face it.

If I do, I will then only purchase from a very few vendors whom I do NOT suspect, and obviously purchase far fewer plants -- only my absolute faves. But that's just the point -- am I being fair in even questioning whether this vendor shipped infected plants?? Is it all just me me me and everything I've done wrong from the beginning, and I shouldn't even purchase one single hosta in future because I'll infect it?

Alas, that is my story, and those are my questions. Please believe I am not trying to deflect blame on to anyone. I'm just trying to understand how bad the damage is and which root causes (no pun intended) are most likely. I simply fell in LOVE with hostas and bought so many so quickly that I couldn't keep up and do things correctly.... My father used to say, "More Money than Sense, Gert"!! [He used to call my Mom and I "Gert" or "Gertrude". Don't ask.... ]

Thank you for reading, and I wish you all heartily well! And your gardens too.