they are gooey because they froze

ken

http://forums.gardenweb.com/discussions/3842017/hosta-late-spring-deep-freeze-damage?n=16

Yes, gooey because they froze.

If I don't cut all this goo away, does it endanger the healthy parts?

Does anyone know?

I have so many hostas. IIt would take my weeks to do that, given the time

I have available every day to devote to gardening tasks.

Does i take time? If you do it thoroughly, it is a real time burner!

So I spent the weekend with the same mess; I dug 20 mature clumps of Aphrodite - my prize bed, as the crowns were rotting and causing the clump to rot.

I cut them apart at the crown level; cut out the rotten gooey parts, cleaned up any apparent root rot and bleached them. Then dried down a bit then replanted in the basement in covered dishes with some bulb rot methoxychlor dust to keep the leaf rot from expanding.

They actually started showing some life the next day and will stay in the "treatment center" until they recover or rot. Will have to check moisture and rot levels, as too much moisture causes rot, but to re-root and get new growth need some moisture. Have to inspect daily and pull out the rotting ones that smell bad - they can rot in one day once they are susceptible with tissue damage.

Can send photos of the process if you like. I will then start going through the garden in the morning looking for individual clumps that are rotting in the heat.

Interesting was the cold freeze rotted the old crowns, which I had not experienced before, so the clumps were rotting internally. Just too cold for exposed growing plants not in dormancy.

Bruce

I had a lot of gooey leaf tips which had kind-of folded over and looked melted. Yesterday I went to inspect them closer and try to clean it up. The gooey part pulled away easily, removing the leaf tip down to a healthier section. but what I found was the fact that they had folded over/melted, was trapping the newer emerging leaves inside and not letting them come out OK. So I literally unfurled the bad outer leaf and "freed" the newer emerging leaves so they could open properly. If not, they were going to be a contorted mess over the next week or so. I didn't dig anything up, just spent some time removing the gooey parts and freeing the new leaves still tightly curled up inside the older, ruined ones. Time consuming, yes, but I hope they will "look" like they are recovering quicker now that we have warmer temps and no more frost coming.

I went out and checked mine yesterday. I had those same folded over leaves; they were dried out not gooey, and very stiff. I left them alone. ThenI felt around as many of the suspicious looking hosta leaves that I could find all through the garden; I'm sure I missed some. But none of them felt gooey this time around. The plants that had the gooey parts earlier last week felt ok this time around; I had removed all signs of goo last time just before I started this thread. Maybe this will end ok, knock on wood.

I'll keep posting till this is over. Thanks everyone for the helpful input. I really appreciate it.

You need to open up the closed dried or gooey ends so the plants can emerge - I break off the contorted ends or cut them with scissors to make them grow out.

Will post some photos tomorrow of another one I cleaned up today