What should I do with my Lowes hostas?

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

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Zkathy
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What should I do with my Lowes hostas?

Post by Zkathy »

A few weeks ago I reclaimed some scrubby areas on the edge of my yard near the woods and planted some camellias. A friend said I needed more hostas and brought me 10 of them that were on sale at Lowes. They were obviously mislabeled so I thought I would just go on the net and ID them. Who knew there were thousands of hostas and I would want hundreds of them? It was like smoking crack, I was instantly hooked.

Four of the Lowes hostas got in the ground before I read about hosta virus x. The other six are still in the pots, but sunk down in the dirt In the new hosta bed I built. My Agdia test strips came last night and the only leaf that looked even slightly abnormal tested negative.

Thanks to Chris for continuing to acknowledge there's a problem and for that you'll get my business. But what should I do with the ones I've got? Should I throw out the ones in pots and roundup the ones in the ground, then dig them up and toss them? Have I contaminated my new bed so no hostas can ever go in it?

I think the three hostas given to me 15 years ago are healthy. I think they are So Sweet, Frances Williams and Undulata Univittata. I didn't even notice they were different hostas the first five years I had them. Recently I've added Fire and Ice, Patriot, Loyalist, Blue Mouse Ears, Empress Wu, Elegans Sieboldiana and Guacamole. All of them were bought at small local Garden centers whose suppliers say they were grown from virus free TC.

I have lots of space and shade so I figured I'd start with all of the Hostas of the Year. I'm ready to get back to planting. What's my next step?
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Re: What should I do with my Lowes hostas?

Post by Tigger »

Don't dismiss your Lowe's hostas just yet, as long as they came in pots and not in boxes. My belief is that the garden centers at the big hardware stores are under some local control, so there may be decent plants in some of them. (I would put Walmart and KMart in another much lower class.) you've tested one and it was negative for HVX, so that's a good start on keeping a close eye on them. Keep 'em if you like 'em. As to IDing them, folks here are happy to help out.

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Re: What should I do with my Lowes hostas?

Post by Chris_W »

If you have enough test strips I would test the ones in the ground individually. With the others, you can actually put samples from multiple hostas into one test kit to see if any of them are positive for HVX. If you put small pieces of leaves from 3 different hostas into one kit and mix it up good and get a negative then all 3 should be clear of Hosta Virus X. Unfortunately if you get a positive test you won't know exactly which one it is, but if any are positive I wouldn't trust the rest anyway and then throw them all away or return them.

About the ones in the ground, if one tests positive, I would never spray it with roundup. There is too much risk of a partial kill with roundup as Hostas are a lot tougher than any of the weeds that roundup actually is intended to kill. Any roots, even those partially killed, that remain in the ground can carry HVX, and if the crown is killed you might not be able to dig up the plant as thoroughly and more roots could break off. I've tested spraying roundup on hostas, and also tested brush b gon, and the plants have returned a year later. While roundup boasts that it kills to the roots, that is only for those weeds listed on the label and is no indication of what it does when you spray a perennial or anything else not specifically labeled. HVX is tough enough to survive in dead plant tissue to infect another plant. So no, do not spray infected plants with roundup.

The best way to get rid of a plant in the ground is to dig the whole thing up intact and get as many roots as you can. If you want to plant hostas there again then keep digging out more and more until you are certain you removed all of the soil from the root zone. Then fill with fresh dirt. If there are other hostas within that root zone then unfortunately those should be removed too. You really have to get all of the old HVX infected roots out of there or they could potentially infect the other hostas around it. Might not happen this year or next year but since HVX can remain active in the soil for several years it could just suddenly infect a hosta even years after removing an infected plant.

But before you worry about that, like I mentioned, test those plants in the ground. It will give you so much more peace of mind once you know one way or the other and if they need to go, so be it.

Good luck :)

Chris
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Zkathy
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Re: What should I do with my Lowes hostas?

Post by Zkathy »

Thanks, Chris. Just having a reasonable plan of action is cheering me up! I'll let you know how the testing goes.
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Zkathy
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Re: What should I do with my Lowes hostas?

Post by Zkathy »

I felt calm in my garden tonight for the first time in weeks. All the Lowes hostas and the Rainforest Sunrise that's still in a pot tested negative. I moved 9 of the 10 Lowes hostas into the other side of the garden where I put in rhododendrons last year. They'll live in quarantine in very nice digs. A new bed for the Krossa Regal, a new bed for the Francee, tucked the First Frost into the rhododendron bed, crowded the Patriot and the pointy NOID into the new bed below the Japanese maple. I took a couple of hits for not noticing how close I was to a yellow jacket nest. The tenth one, a Barbara Ann, will stay where she is and I'll watch her.

I dug up all the dirt that might have been contaminated if one of them was newly sick and put it in a bed I'm going to move a Ligularia into this fall. I used the empty holes to add more amendments to my new hosta bed. So now I have a new bed with an ostrich fern (young), an Autumn fern, a giant Liriope, and a Fire and Ice. I have the Rainforest Sunrise in a pot and almost $300 worth of hostas on my Hallson wish list. How much advice can I get on this forum? When I figure out how to post pictures I'll move the rest of this discussion to another forum.

Thanks,
Kathy
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Re: What should I do with my Lowes hostas?

Post by Chris_W »

That is great news, and I'm glad that there is calm in the hosta garden again, as there should be. I agree that sometimes simply having a plan of action really helps, no matter the outcome. I've been there before myself, and know all about those butterflies in the stomach, worrying about them, and then feeling much more confident after either testing or just throwing away :)

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Hope that helps :)

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Re: What should I do with my Lowes hostas?

Post by thy »

Welcome to the forums :D

:o Do I remember the night when I typed hosta in to Google and found out there were not 6 or 7 hostas but at that time 3.500 :lol:

If you still are concerned about HVX you can dig up your newly planted hostas and replant them in big pots... that way there will be no root connections if the virus shows up after some years :wink:

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