Striptese HVX infected?

[sensibullmastiffs]

I think I already know the answer to my own question but... I'm a newbie to hosta addiction and I think this 'might' be my first case.

Is this plant infected??




Sorry to have to post the pic as a link to my photobucket, but i'm unable to resize the image on this computer.

Thanks for your input.

[Chris_W]

Hi, and welcome to the Hallson forums!

Yes, I think you are right about that one. Striptease can have some odd color changes that leave a bit of a mottled variegation at times, but when you start to see that distinct zig-zag "bleeding" that follows right along the veins then you are seeing HVX.

The Dutch are getting more and more sneaky with their plants, telling nurseries that they are guaranteed free of HVX, or that they are selling hostas from tested tissue culture stock, but in reality many (if not most) of their plants are still infected. They guarantee based on visual symptoms, and if they do have HVX they will give credits towards a future purchase. Basically, it is no guarantee at all that the plant doesn't have a virus... Also,once nurseries are handling HVX infected stock it is easy for them to pass it along to other plants. Hopefully you can get your money back from the nursery you bought this from.

Good luck, and feel free to ask if you have any questions.

Chris

[sensibullmastiffs]

Thank you so much, the nursery said they would give me my money back, but oh so frustrating with their non-chelant our plants are not infected attitude.

This one is going back tonight, I already spoke to the grower there who said 'he would look into testing their stock'...yea right...... but I'm going to show up there when I receive my test kits and out of my pocket am going to test it in front of them to prove that I'M RIGHT....hahahah evil grin and I'm going to tell them this tonight to (not in those words though lol), maybe that will make them a little more receptive to testing and quit thinking i'm some crazy hosta freak.

Sad part is now I've got five other hostas that have NO symptoms that I bought at the same time from them, that could possibly be infected, let alone worry about all my other hostas.

So I will test theirs to prove a point and if definitely it is positive will test the other ones I bought from them, if theirs is negative I won't test my others and I will have four kits if needed in future.