HVX Example photos. Known "Infected" pics only, please

The linked for me also. Both links actually. Sometimes it is the server being harried!!!

I am new to hostas. I have been planting since spring 2006. I a begining to get scared. The HVX thing is a tough one to identify.

Flintrock, No reason to be scared, just know your facts, what it looks like, proper cleaning of tools and only buy from people that live and breath hosta (and what they take for precautions) and you'll be fine. :)

Thanks Jeannine. That looks like a very useful page to have on hand!

MollyD

flint,
Don't be scared, chances are you won't get it, but it's nice to know the symptoms to keep and eye out.

Be scared about foliar nematodes...then you won't think twice about HVX. LOL!

For sure!!!! nematodes are KILLIN me!!

Susan
=^..^=

Me tooooooooooo

Me three!

Well, there are sprays that kill about 90% of nematodes. One could see if you could get them?

What do nemo infected plants look like?

Yes, do we need a new thread for nemo-infected plants, too?

dove,
They have brown lines running through them.

susy,
Prolly wouldn't be a bad idea

Here is another sample of HVX.

Alex Summers shows puckering and inkbleeding in only the second year in my garden.

Here's what it looks like on Halcyon. The darker splotches are sunken in, and the plant emerged in the Spring with some very deformed leaves, as well. This would have been it's third season in my garden.

Here's my Lakeside Looking Glass which has confirmed HVX according to the nursery's test strips. (Sorry, but it's also got a bit of dirt on the leaves).

Badly diseased Striptease.

Closer one of the same plant

Although it cost an arm and a leg by the time I got them here, those Agdia test

strips have been worth it because they've confirmed 3 cases of HVX in the garden for me late this summer.

Interestingly, my records show I bought all three of them in either '04 or '05. I didn't notate the name of the nursery, which indicates I bought them someplace other than a specialist hosta nursery, because I always notate the name. It was probably a big box store, or seasonal garden centre.

I wanted to post these because they show a different symptom from the inkbleeding symptom I was used to linking to HVX. These just looked funky in the garden, so I tested them, and sure enough...

Sandy

#1 - Mottling
Here's my 4 year old
Lakeside Black Satin

#2 - spotting
montana 'Mountain Snow', also 4 years old

#3 - leaf collapse/puckering
Mildred Seaver was only 3 years old

Here's a shot of the test strips telling the tale.

I'm sad but glad. Glad they are now out of the garden!

Sandy

Sandy, thanks so much for posting these pictures. The 'Mountain Snow', like you said, really doesn't have much of "classic" symptoms, just looks worn at the end of the season. I hate HVX. I hope none of mine end up with it. I've been religious about disinfecting tools but did buy two plants from a seasonal garden center this year...hopefully they will be fine.

Elizabeth

Ugh, now I feel even more depressed. My entire garden was started in 2005....I've had one case of HVX so far but I'm so afraid they've all got it now and I just don't know it yet. I didn't buy any test strips because I kind of don't want to know how bad it is. :(

I'm really sorry, Sandy.

Noreaster - you SHOULD buy those test strips because you might be pleasantly surprised and even if you aren't you'll know where you stand instead of constantly worrying about spreading a virus you 'might' have.

Elizabeth - I've had two confirmed cases of HVX - one in a plant new to me in 2006 and one that was new last year. Both were reputable sources. Just keep a good watch on your plants, but I hope you will be fine.

Ann

I know Ann, but I guess I just prefer to live in denial and enjoy my plants as long as they are looking nice. I do disinfect my tools and all that. I also agree with you that I don't know that the source means a whole lot, considering the length of time the virus can remain dormant. I think it can show up anywhere hosta are being produced..I know what a major pain it is for me just to disinfect between cuts and maintenance of my own little garden....I just can't see a lot of growers going to all the trouble, all the time. But, I admit I'm a pessimist.

Sandy, did you test all your hosta or only ones you thought looked a little funky?

Yikes! The price they want for those strips! For the moment my collection looks OK. But, I've got some coming in a fall order and some I put in earlier this year. Now I read that it can take a year for the disease syptoms to actually show. Plus, what got my attention about this thread was a trip to what I always considered the best garden center in the county. I stopped dead in my tracks in the hosta section. They had obvious hostas that appeared infected. Needless to say I bought no hostas. If I have any infected plants that aren't showing symptoms I've already spread it by cutting back the flower scapes that were going to seed. :>( After this fall order I'm out of the hosta collecting hobby until either the test strips get cheaper and you can take them with you to the garden center or this disease is under better control. 80% of my back yard is a series of shade and Japanese Maple gardens. The last thing I need are a bunch of diseased hostas,

So, does this mean hostas like my Gold Standard, Golden Tiara, etc. might be in demand? :) LOL

I counted that I had something like six or seven mature clumps of Gold Standard. I found a long forgotten colony of Golden Tiara yesterday...

If they're older, I guess so, Ticker! I really envy all you guys that have started your gardens a long time ago. I'm new to it all and love hosta most of all, but if I let myself think about HVX I get seriously depressed. Snapple, what is scary is that it can take longer than a year for signs to show. I could deal with it if I lost a hosta I planted only a year ago. Losing a mature specimen is what would get me. Sandy's are 3-4 years old and some aren't even showing "obvious" signs, yet are still infected. And I have seen obvious cases in virtually every nursery around here- including the upscale ones.

Major, major bummer. I'm done with the hosta stuff. Anybody got a list of other shade plants as versatile?

Snapple, why would you be done with hostas? Just buy your stuff from reputable dealers and you're fine. I love hostas way too much to let HVX or nematodes or any other virus get in the way of my collecting them.

I'm going to take a "time out" - Time to evaluate the health of the ones I currently have and time to watch the growers' response to this menace. Since I also love to share and swap hostas with local fellow gardeners I feel a responsibilty to make certain that I don't unknowingly add to the problem. We have a local Hosta society here. My next step is to contact them. I've heard, but havn't verified, that they have a co-op going on getting the test strips. My goal during this time out is to assess the health of what I have. My collection is pretty small, only about 25 named cultivars, but the total mass is a major part of the gardens.

Ann bought from a reputable source and her hosta still turned up with HVX. But, I'm not gonna stop collecting them either....I'm just gonna stay in denial and keep cleaning my tools! I think anyone willing to trade understands the risk at this point.

Noreaster, you asked whether I tested all my hostas or just the ones that looked funky. I'd love to be able to test them all, but I have about 300 hostas now and by the time I got the strips up here to Canada, the added cost translates to each strip costing $7.13. That's over $2,000 to test them all ! No, these particular ones just didn't look right, so I tested them.

Snapple, that sure would be nice if the strips were cheap enough to take with you hosta shopping!

Don't you guys feel that it should be the responsibility of the nursery to at least do a batch test when they get a shipment in? If one hosta in the batch tests positive, likely the whole batch will be the same. Perhaps a lot of them do this. As consumers, yes, we have a responsibility for sanitation in our gardens, but, darn it, I sure would like to be able to buy virus-free hostas without feeling I need to test each one. That's $7 per hosta (for me), plus the hassle of buying the strips. Although, having said all that - it does give me a sense of security having the strips to test a few that look odd. But if one day I knew my garden was HVX free it would really irk me to think I have to test each new hosta myself. Makes hybridizing your own hostas look mighty attractive, eh.

Sandy

Edited to say that the strips are not exactly instant - you are supposed to wait 30 mins for results.


This message was edited Sep 24, 2008 11:02 AM

This issue will have to addressed by the growers. Economically they really can't afford not to. Once they do get a handle on it the remaining reservoir of diseased stock will be in home gardens. That's a dicey problem because every time an infected hosta gets innocently passed along the reservoir increases. Research indicates that there is no treatment for any plant virus. So, identification and sanitation of infected material along with the development of resistant varieties will be the front line in the battle. It won't be pretty.

This message was edited Sep 23, 2008 10:04 AM

I think nurseries do have a responsibility to do "test spots." If they purchased strips in the kind of bulk they would need, I bet that would drive the cost per test to $3-$4 each. Test 5% or so of stock coming in, a few plants from each shipment, and reject the whole shipment if any show up with HVX. I really think that if the supernurseries built in the cost of testing and let customers know that is what they were doing, we would be willing to absorb the price. I for sure would be willing to pay $1 or $2 more per plant if I knew that it was from a batch that was tested.

Elizabeth

I hate to hear you guys talking about discontinuing your collection of Hostas... there are do many hostas I say .. so what! Until the industry start doing test strip on their plants we are at a lost anyway. I am not going to buy test stripes to find out if a plant has HVX ...when Icould just junk the plant and buy another. ... there is just too many of them (hostas) out there. ... and I never seen a Hosta I did not like.
Also I question the validity of the test stripes, whats the percentage of accurcy? I dont see the big guy using them. The tissue culture process it self is suppose to stop the production of HVX cells .... so who is to blame?
So what is happening here?

last year i showed you guys pictures of my Striptease, because it appeared diseased to me ... you guys said nothing was wrong with it, but my pictures looked worse than Pugs, but nothing thing is wrong with Pugs.
I might be wrong, but I dont think the Hosta industry is regulated enough to make all these claims... so I am not giving up my Hostas.

The growers know they have a problem and are working to address it, but still diseased stock is finding its way into the market place and into our gardens. Read the article link below. When I buy a hosta I buy it because it has a particular set of traits that I find pleasing - color, variegation, sun tolerance, size and texture. I don't want the plant to wind up looking different because it's diseased. Even if the disease changes the plant to be oddly attractive, at least at first, it can't be propagated like a desirable sport. In short the plant is worthless and threatens the rest of the surrounding hostas. I'll close my collecting for now ( pretty small collection anyway but growing) to preserve what I have.

In my opinion, in the current environment, adding new hostas to an established garden could ultimately cause the loss of the entire collection. I don't have much really, but I chose what I have carefully and I'm not willing to risk it all.

http://www.floracultureinternational.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=437&Itemid=8&ed=40

Great article Snapple. However, I'm still buying Hostas and the growers I buy from guarantee their hostas to be healthy, etc. :) And are proactive on protecting the consumer from HVX and Nematodes. :)

I don't see how introducing a virus infected hosta puts your whole collection at risk...unless, I guess, if you have them all packed in together with no space between any one them. I feel reasonably sure I haven't passed the virus along in my collection, even though I've had one sick plant so far. Along with cleaning tools between cutting and digging, I now also line the hole with newsprint every time I swap hosta in the garden, and add new soil so that any old root fragments don't mingle with the new roots until everything is well broken down. The reason I think my whole collection is probably infected anyway is not because of anything I did, but from how the plants were most likely handled at the growers or later the nurseries.

Ticker, are there growers that will actually guarantee that they will sell you a hosta that won't come down with HVX four years from now? If it does, do they just replace it for you?

I may have asked this once before but do those strips detect the virus even if the plant does not display symptoms of any kind?

Yes, the strips do detect the virus before the plant shows symptoms. I have no fear of buying hostas from Naylor Creek, Hallsons, Dawn's Bloomers, In The Garden Nursery, etc. Those folks have been on the forefront of fighting HVX and have moved to ensure that their stock is clean. I buy hostas from people that live and breath hostas. I don't buy them from big box stores or specialty nurseries (swanky or not), and I usually don't buy them from someone having a sale in their yard unless I know that person and where they get their hostas. :)



This message was edited Sep 23, 2008 4:39 PM