Here is my other h.'August Moon' having a single green blotch on a single leaf. I believe this is no HVX either based on above test, also ran out of test strips. Bernd

The question remains, what is the problem? Testing for HVX and having a clean result does not rule out other virus....and other virus can be spread more readily than HVX by thrips and nematodes while HVX cannot by all scientific study.

I'm sorry but I simply don't find much value in just an HVX test and a comprehensive testing regimen isn't justified against the cost of a hosta except for commercial operations.

I know this comes across as negative, but I'm thinking of what I would do. Removing the leaves will not stop another virus, just as it would not stop HVX. I would spray the August Moon to try and kill or at least try to contain anything that could enable spreading. Then I would use glyphosate to kill it to the roots. Just using glyphosate alone might cause the 'bugs' to move out into other hosta spreading infection.

I feel just awful saying this, but this is the course of action I would take and I think it is the best way to approach the problem. For what it is worth.

Jon

Earlier this spring I had a choice to make along those lines. It was my gorgeous big Fried Bananas came down with a virus of some kind. It tested negative for HVX. Not knowing what else to do, I put it into a huge black contractor's bag, and sat it at the street, pot and all, for the trash pickup.

The other day, I was gazing out the window while talking on the phone, and noticed a familiar object at the corner of my elderly (I'm old but she's in her late 80s and a hoarder) neighbor's house.....it was THAT POT, with Fried Bananas still in it. I was mortified.

Apparently, she once again went through my trash and SAVED that lovely plant, and of course the very large pot.

I realized that simply putting the plant into the trash would not remove the threat of the virus popping up elsewhere. We all know that hosta are survivors, and apparently the virus does not KILL, but it sure makes some ugly plants.

Now I cannot give this neighbor an invitation to visit my garden, since she may well bring that virus back to my garden. Oh why won't spectres stay buried!

Moc,

Throwing away the pot is overkill. Throw away the hosta and soak the pot in Dawn anti-bacterial dishwashing soap. That will kill and HVX that might be lingering in the pot.

I doubt your neighbor would have been tempted to 'recycle' your hosta without the pot.

Jon

Am I missing something? I wouldn't throw away a big because is had one odd color blotch on one leaf like that. I'd need more proof that it was infected with something.

Mocc, I can't believe your neighbor raids your trash!!!!

coll, certainly not. Doing that would make gardening with 300 hostas unmanageable.

There are other viruses around. Ha, I even got some virus at 6 Flags last weekend.... Anyway, such a blotch is not looking bad at all considering what slugs and nematodes will do to some of my hostas. But HVX is different, it did deform many leaves on 2 hostas this year, some leaves looked really bad, it could have spread, and I had to throw them out, but not these 2 'August Moon' with a few blotches.

OTOH when any other virus would have affected 1/3 of a plant and the following year would show up again, then I would discard that plant too.
Bernd

Coll, it was a lot more than one leaf. It was also not the first hosta from that particular source to exhibit virus which tested NEGATIVE FOR HVX. (I keep my hosta together by source.) I would rather sacrifice the one hosta than risk losing all my other hosta. I'm not experienced enough to make informed choices, or have another hostaphile come over to look at it for a diagnosis....I am at the far outpost of hostadom...the Hosta Forum is a major source of help and referral.

Jonny, I tell you I do not mind the pots. They are not important, it is what goes in them I want to keep safe. When I get more confident with hosta culture, I'll probably get more blase about it and skate closer to thin ice. I still consider myself a beginner.

Oh yes, my neighbor goes through the trash. We've taken to putting it to the street at the last possible moment to avoid tempting her. She isn't the only one...there are "pickers" who drive by before trash day, scanning for metal to recycle..... anything residential goes, you know, from refrigerators and stoves to mattresses to chairs to you name it. We pile it so the recycle items might be removed w/o destroying the pile itself. It is a great service in an area where the growth of vegetation is subtropical. I had no idea she found this particular pot, it was in a heavy black contractor bag tied up and out with tree limbs and bags of weeds.