Here are some questions that were asked of me in a private message. I'm posting them here since I think they are useful questions that others may also be asking.
Q) Would you personally take plants in trade, and if so what do you do with them when you get them?
A) Personally I've received many nematode infected plants in trades, and one HVX infected plant although it came directly from a major nursery so we both thought it would be fine. So I really don't accept plant trades any more, but mainly because of nematodes. When I did used to do trades I potted them up and kept them away from anything else until the end of the year, then if they were alright I planted them in the ground in September. If there were nematodes they all got pitched, however one time I did keep a plant that was very rare, heat treated it and then planted it in the garden. No sign of nematodes 4 years later. So my answer is: No, I don't take plants in trade, but I also have a nursery to protect.
Q) Can HVX be spread through the seeds? One person says yes, another person says no.
A) YES, HVX can be spread from the pod parent to its seedlings. Originally it was thought that it would not, but some studies were done that found found HVX WILL spread to about 10% of the seedlings from an infected pod parent.
Q) If a scape of a plant breaks off an infected plant how likely is it that I will spread to other healthy plants? Cause it gets pretty windy up here.
A) If it is just a scape breaking off it is unlikely to spread. However if a branch crushes the leaves of an infected plant and a healthy plant at the same time then maybe it could spread. Damage has to be done to both the infected and healthy plant, at about the same time, for the infection to spread from sap to sap. Theoretically a strong wind storm that kicked up enough dust to cause abrasion and serious damage to an infected plant and then have the same dust rub against a healthy plant the virus could be moved, but this would have to be like a tornado.
Q) Last but not least, if I was digging in my garden and dug at an infected plant, left my garden, went to another garden and touched one of their plants, could I potentially spread HVX?
A) Assuming you got plant sap on your hands and didn't wash your hands, you would have to damage the plant in the other garden somehow in order to successfully transfer the virus. However the virus can survive in dried sap for up to 3 weeks, so it is important to wash your hands or better yet use disposable gloves when touching a known infected plant.
In simple handling of bare root plants, such as planting and potting, the transfer rate is about 2 in 100. If you handle infected plants there is a very good chance you are getting sap and virus on your hands, then just touching healthy roots you will find that about 2 in 100 of the healthy plants will become infected, assuming you are just handling and not actually pinching or cutting into the plants. Then the rate goes up considerably. (This approximate rate has been found in both real situations and trial studies).
I hope that helps to answer these questions, but if anyone has others feel free to post them here and I'll try to answer them.
