HVX or sunburn on Brother Stefan?

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

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Azucea
Posts: 2
Joined: Jun 28, 2017 9:35 pm
USDA Zone: 5b

HVX or sunburn on Brother Stefan?

Post by Azucea »

Awfully worried...
It was just 10 days ago when i bought this from a reputable nursery. The marks started to show up about a week after on all 4 full leaves and the 2 younger ones don't have these. I am crossing my fingers this is just sunburn; where it is planted barely gets shade from a young tree next to it.
Thank you for your help.
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Chris_W
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Re: HVX or sunburn on Brother Stefan?

Post by Chris_W »

Welcome to the forums.

That doesn't look like HVX to me and like you suspect it looks like some kind of damage on the surface of the leaves. I'm not sure that it is typical of sunburn but it is not typical of Hosta Virus X.

There is a chance that this is damage indirectly caused by too much fertilizer that created a condition of weaker tissue that in turn leads to a better chance of sunburn. The size of the leaves and length of the petioles makes me suspect that the nursery fertilizes a lot in order to really push the growth. Since you aren't seeing any of the intense corrugation you would get on an older Brother Stefan it leads me believe that this is simply a younger plant that has been hyper-fertilized. There isn't anything really wrong with that in the long run but that might lead to a somewhat weaker plant this first planting season.

Hope that helps but if you have other questions don't hesitate to post them :)
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Azucea
Posts: 2
Joined: Jun 28, 2017 9:35 pm
USDA Zone: 5b

Re: HVX or sunburn on Brother Stefan?

Post by Azucea »

Thank you Chris. I'm so relieved that it's not HVX. And thank you as well for the added, helpful information. From your suspicion of hyper-fertilized, I can now recall lots of slow release fertilizer not only on this plant but on other hostas from the same nursery.

Cheers!
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