http://www.perennialnursery.com/hosta-rare-breed.html

Here is a link that might be useful: Rare Breed

This post was edited by santamiller on Mon, Apr 14, 14 at 12:55

My first thought is a cut worm. They are caterpillars for some kind of moth. They feed at night. I think they take about 2 weeks to pupate. Then, they are gone.

I never found the caterpillar, but suspect it in the damage to my Key West this spring. I'll try to get another photo today, as it looks lots nicer now and the damage barely shows

bk

Could it be southern blight? Maybe too early for that, but it's the right place for it, anyway! My parents live in Corpus Christi, and we are originally Austinites, so I know all about Central and South Texas. :)

The crown would probably be mush as well though, and it has pretty visible signs (little orangey balls all around the base of the petioles), so it's probably more likely a critter of some kind.

I should have taken a picture but I trimmed off the damage before I thought about that. bkâ¦..it did look very much like that from what I can tell from your picture, but mine is only one eye, and while the lower leaves were floppy from the edge of the main plant the couple of upper new leaves looked and still appear to be healthy, as is the base and the rest of the plant. It was like they leaves lost all firmness all the way to where they attached. Does that match what you saw?

its way too early for southern blight.. even down south..

i think of that when nights are hot.. humid.. and balmy ...

ken

No, they are cut off/eaten, not soggy when the cutworms get them.

I started to say it's too early, but I checked my photos and it was 4/7/11 when I had Southern Blight. Look around the soil level and see if you see any orange balls about the size of a bb. For me, the roots were gone. I just had ugly drying up leaves. I've attached photos of what mine looked like. My situation is different, so I'm not sure it will help.

I would suggest just watching it closely and see if the problem continues. Take photos if that happens.

Maybe someone else will have a better idea.

bk

Yeah, growing up we used to find crown rot in the perennial beds even when the bluebonnets were still in bloom, so the timing isn't impossible. Hard to believe when you're still thawing out up north! :)

Of course it could be something else, but the first growth lying flat, inner pets still firm, soft at the ground level...sure sounds familiar from my Texas days!

As of a now the remaining 3 leaves look OK. There are no signs of any of the orange balls and the plant feels firmly held in the soil. I'll keep a close eye on it and if it has any more problems I'll make sure to get some pics.

I thought it was too early for cut worms. Not. I found one next to a star jasmine this morning. Anything is possible. They can do major damage to a hosta. Time for Sluggo Plus.

-Babka

You said upper 80s so could be the blight. To me the stuff looks like the slow release fertilizer Osmocote. A plant with that problem will look great one day and be flat the next. No broken petioles like squirrel damage, but totally flopped over from the base at the crown. I saved one last year, my Funky Monkey, by removing the affected parts , spraying it down with the Bayer product which I cannot name right now, I am away from computer. I think the best thing I did was move its pot to a place with better air circulation and drench the mix with an ammonia bath , dilute of course.

Moccâ¦.that's pretty much what happened. Now a couple of other leaves look limp-ish but the very small, newest leaves still look fine. I would appreciate if you would post the Bayer product name when you can. I did a search on the ammonia bath and found a thread on it. Is that the 9 parts water/1 part ammonia solution? Thanks.

"Bayer advanced disease control for roses, flowers, and shrubs" treats SB. It does sound like that's what you're dealing with. If you don't see the telltale orange balls at the surface, dig in a half inch or so right by the crown...I've found it below the surface before instead of on top.

Just another description of blight damage...sounds like a ringer.

"With container Hosta, older and lower foliage wilts, becomes yellow and then brown. Lower stems (crowns) often become rotted, but rotting may not extend completely throughout the crown tissues. Hosta plants may or may not completely die as a result of infection."

Here is a link that might be useful: Bayer Advanced at Walmart.com

This post was edited by jadie88 on Wed, Apr 16, 14 at 9:53

Jadie has the right product. It is also available from Lowes and probably HomeDepot.

And the ammonia bath is the 9:1 water:household ammonia.
I think Ken mentioned that spraying with Windex (w/ammonia) could work also? That may be in the thread you found, Santa.

My first experience with Southern blight was when it hit a densely grown The Razor's Edge. It was August 2012, and the plant was in bloom. I took this picture one day, and the next it was laid out flat in the pot. The hosta next to it, with a more open crown area to permit circulation of air, was perfectly fine. I was devastated by this loss. I chunked the whole thing, pot and all. Somehow the pictures I took of the infestation were lost when my external hard drive backup location for photos self destructed. I'm looking for another plant that I lost to SB also, but if I did not upload it to Flickr, it is gone for good. Otherwise I have ONLY 2013 and this year photos.

The Razor's Edge #1...August 2012, just before it died

Here is Totally Twisted which was lovely one day and then looked like I'd dumped Osmocote in it.

Here it is this year recovered from SB

My observation is that the thickly growing hosta are very susceptible to poor air circulation, and thus create a saturated microclimate which fosters southern blight. When dog days of summer arrive this year, I'm thinking of placing a box fan in one area of the garden to move the air at ground level. Couldn't hurt, right?

Another hint which might be helpful is to make sure the hosta with such dense growth sit fairly high in the pot, with a minimum of pot showing above the potting mix. Perhaps having a better draining potting mix with lots of bark in it could also help.

Thanks to you both for the great advice and for the pictures. I'll pick some up tomorrow.

Mine was a thickly growing hosta, too. It was really old and had never been divided. That's the only time I had it (knock on wood). I ended up with 2 pots of u albomarginata by the time I got everything washed down. I didn't know you were supposed to bleach or use a fungicide, so I just washed them down really well with plain old Dallas city water.

bk

the next year

I gave it a spraying with the Bayer Advanced Disease Control, as suggested. Is one dose enough or should it be repeated at some point? A couple of the old leaves and especially the new growth appears healthy. Rare Breed is a very slow grower so it may take a while for me to see how it holds up.