Crown rot in container-grown hostas

[kaylyred]

Looks like I've lost three hostas this year to crown rot. It was my first year trying to grow a bunch in containers. I used potting soil mixed with some shredded wood mulch. When winter came, and before our first snow, I turned them all on their sides (there were too many in the courtyard to move into the garage.) I flipped them back up in late April, when we got past the active freeze/thaw period. We did have a rainy stretch just after I put the hostas back upright; could that have contributed to the crown rot?

I think I might just give up on the idea of growing hostas in containers. I've never lost three hostas in a season, so it's kind of disheartening.

[Chris_W]

Hi there,

It is possible that you tipped them over too late and then I definitely think you tipped them up too soon. I tipped mine over in November and just tipped them back up yesterday. The most important thing is to not tip them up too soon. More rotting seems to occur in the spring, right as things are thawing.

Then again, I always expect to lose a couple of the potted ones over the winter, so if you are talking three out of 20 or 30, you really aren't doing bad at all.

[kaylyred]

Thanks, Chris. If I try it again, I'll wait longer before I tip them up. My ratio isn't as good as 3 out of 20 or 30...it's more like three out of about a dozen. And, of course, the ones I didn't bother with--the undulatas my husband picked up from someone on Freecycle thinking I'd want them--are coming up just fine despite the fact that one of them sat near an overhang and collected ice all winter. I kept thinking that one would be a goner and I'd have an excuse to use the container for something else, but...no.

[Linda P]

That's always the way it goes! I have a lancifolia in a pot that has never been turned on its side, never fertilized, never has new soil added, never watered any more than the ones in the ground. It sits there year after year, coming back just as big as ever. I put it in that pot as an experiment when we were talking about growing hostas in pots back at the GW hosta forum, probably 2000 or so? Every year I think it will surely give up any time now, but it doesn't. If it was one I really wanted to keep it would have been dead after the first winter.

[kaylyred]

It's the same with these things, Linda. They've clearly been in the pots they're in for a loooonnng time (the previous owner had them in the post for who knows how long before my husband snagged them), and they're bursting at the seams. I sincerely doubt anyone's bothered to change the soil. I haven't fertilized; just kept them watered along with everything else in my courtyard area. I put them at the very back of the bunch of hostas I had in pots last season because the pots are ugly and the hostas themselves are just plain janes. The one under the overhang was sitting right where the downspout overflows occasionally, and it had several inches of ice frozen on top of it at one point. Later, when it was rainy, it was in several inches of standing water. And now, when things are drying out...pips galore. You've gotta have some respect for a hosta that suffers that kind of mistreatment and comes back strong as ever.

Also, I just have to say it...I like lancifolia. Sure, it's plain and green, but when it flowers it's actually really pretty. And you can't kill it, which is a plus.

[Noreaster]

I had a couple potted hosta casulaties this year, too. I was very, very lazy last fall and really didn't get things in order well. Normally I sink all the pots into the ground, but a few weren't as deep as they should have been, a few should have been repotted into a better draining medium, and a few were totally exposed and we had a very cold and very snowy winter, which did not help. I hope they aren't total losses but it's not looking good for a couple of them.

[Schattenfreude]

You all are much braver than I am--- I plant all of my potted ones into the ground in the fall, then dig them back up and repot them in the spring.... It gives me a chance to get "reconnected" every spring

Over the winter I did a lot of research on potting mediums and drainage. I think they will like their new potted homes this year!

Kevin in KC