Will casual contact transmit HVX?

Discuss Hosta Virus X and share pictures and information on this ever increasing threat to hosta growing.

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E.B.
Posts: 2
Joined: May 11, 2012 2:51 am
USDA Zone: 7b

Will casual contact transmit HVX?

Post by E.B. »

I was digging up a Wide Brim I've had for 3 years today because I believe it had come down with HVX. Several of the leaves were bubbled-looking and we've had no late frost. The plant had come from one of those dried root masses shipped from Holland that you get at Home Depot, and at that time I didn't know about HVX, I was a hosta newbie. I didn't know that those root masses shipped from Holland were not checked very well for HVX.

Anyway, after I chopped the aforementioned hosta out of the ground, there was a sudden gust of wind and a couple of the chopped off leaves blew back into the hosta garden and landed on 2 of my new mini hosta plants, only planted last week. I dove into the garden and snatched off the offending leaves.

Could my new babies have been infected by the blown leaves being on them for less than 1 minute?

Here are pics of the late Wide Brim plant.

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Chris_W
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Re: Will casual contact transmit HVX?

Post by Chris_W »

Hi,

Sorry to hear about the HVX infected plant. That really does look infected.

The chances of it spreading to the other plants by casual contact like that is very, very slim. You would have to have fresh damage to the other leaves to pass on the virus, so the leaves just resting there are unlikely to cause problems. I wouldn't worry about it.

The bigger risk at this point would be if you planted any other hostas around the old root zone of Wide Brim, so don't replant another hosta near there.

Chris
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E.B.
Posts: 2
Joined: May 11, 2012 2:51 am
USDA Zone: 7b

Re: Will casual contact transmit HVX?

Post by E.B. »

Hi, Chris,

Thanks so much. That's 2 for 2 for Home Depot hostas. That's why I only get hostas from online now, from people like yourself who test and monitor their stock. Even the "best" local nursery here has had badly infected hostas right there on the shelf. I actually got my laptop from my car and showed them HVX webpages, but they just put the plant back, I saw them.

I would have purchased my new mini hostas from you, everyone on the Gardenweb hosta forum speaks so highly of your products, but you didn't happen to have the ones I wanted at the time--Raspberry Sundae, Yellow Polka Dot Bikini, and Cherish, all together.

I marked the center of the hole where the Wide Brim was, and threw the remains of W.B. into the garbage can. I will go out and plant a pretty heuchera there in the very hole the W.B. came out of, while it's fresh, so I don't accidentally plant a hosta near there. There is at least 12" of undisturbed ground between the hole and the new mini-hostas, which I hope is sufficient to avoid infection. I threw away the old shovel I used to dig out the W.B., so there won't be any need to disinfect it.

Should I do anything else to the hole or the ground around it? It could not be helped that some of the soil from the hole formerly containing W.B. scattered on top of the mulch, perhaps some of it scattered near other hostas. But it's on top of the mulch, although some minute particles may have landed on leaves of hostas. Is that a concern?
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