I did another round of clean up today, trying to take the wait and see approach for each hosta as to the extent of the freeze damage. One thing I notice is the hostas are slower to unfurl - a bad thing, I guess from the injured leaf tissue? My hope that some of the inner leaves were protected is pretty much dashed for the majority, have to remember this wasn't just a bad night of frost it was 13 days of below freezing temps. If anything, the damage was worse than it looked at first.
While I'm watching this play out and try to save what I can, I have to wonder how fast crown rot can set in? Several times I could get a whiff of rotting plant material and I'm afraid I already waited too long! Quite a few are now completely cut back to the ground and it's a terrible sight, but is there something I can do to preventive crown rot? Leave the areas unmulched for aeration and spraying the pathetic severed eye stumps with a 10% bleach solution maybe?
Mine have also suffered from the freezing temps. Hope someone can offer suggestions. I have frozen white tips on the old hostas and wanted to move them and redo that part of the hosta bed. If I dig them and put them in a pot until I have the bed redone will this stress them more. Hope the experts have some suggestions.
Thanks,
Sue
Kathleen, only tried it with a very few, but I would gently remove the soil from top of it, then use a fingernail to scratch the surface of the crown ... if it is soft, dig it up and dig out all soft things... let it dry out for a few days and then plant it in the soil again.
Pia
Against stupidity the gods themselves struggle in vain.
E-mail for pics hostapics@gmail.com
When making cuts to clean up mushy eyes or crown, use the sharpest tool you can - dull or jagged blades will bruise or tear tissue causing even further damage. Rather than digging them up to operate on them and cause them more stress, just brush the dirt well away from the damaged eyes or crown material and don’t let dirt touch your tool or the cut surfaces...lots of pathogens in the soil. I used exacto blades when I got bad freeze damage a few years ago - and just put in a new blade for each plant (I buy them by 100s for my carving). I blotted each cut with a fresh pc. of paper towel barely moist with bleach & water to kill any pathogens, then let the cuts dry and callous over before replacing the dirt over the crowns. A lot of the mushy eyes had to be removed like potato eyes...the mush penetrated the crown material right under some of the eyes. I didn’t lose a single one (that time), but a number of them were set back a few years.
Hosta being damaged by cold I have come to expect...but this is the first time since I started gardening (lets say about 30 yrs) that I have had tulips, hyacinths and daffodils damaged by cold. Some of my tulips look like something Picasso imagined...there are tulip leaves and tulip flowers...but not truly recognizable as tulips without rather intense study (hehe).
Pia and Wanda, thank you. I'm negligent in checking the crown for soft areas and used scissors that qualify as dull. With 23 hostas at the mush level X an average of 9 eyes apiece = I need to get back out there. Or take up golf and ignore them. Good luck to everyone out there!
Hmmm....I used scissors, too, times 110 hostas, new scissors though, but I wasn't very careful. I cut them off about 3/4 to 1" above soil level and it's been 2 days now. They were all mush except a few that I trimmed mushy leaves around new shoots. Should I do anything?
Charla
Latitude 38.57N; Longitude -94.89W (Elev. 886 ft.)
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I cut them off about 3/4 to 1" above soil level and it's been 2 days now. They were all mush except a few that I trimmed mushy leaves around new shoots. Should I do anything?