Carol:
If it were me, I'd feel confident about running it through a hot compost pile.
-O

Contact your local office of the Texas A & M USDA Cooperative Extension Service and take a sample of the plant, or maybe even the whole plant, in sealed in a plastic bag for proper diagnosis. You pay for the services of the CES anyway and might as well use them and the only really good way for you to know whether the plant had a disease, or if the problem is cultural, is to have it looked at by someone trained to look at these things.

Here is a link that might be useful: Texas A & M CES

Thanks for your suggestion, kimmsr. I took some of the deformed leaves in to my local county extension office and got a call a few days later from an agent who told me that after consulting with his co-workers, they decided the plant was either root-bound or not getting enough water.

I'm having a hard time believing it as the plant wasn't root bound when I bought it. I repotted the thing when I got it home into a much larger pot, which it hasn't come anywhere near outgrowing yet. I've been watering it thoroughly and regularly and the leaves aren't drying up at all...they're just severely deformed.

Now it's stopped putting out new leaves entirely. The points where it should be growing look stunted with little antennae things sticking out. I'm still thinking it's a virus of some sort and am wondering if it's something in the soil. I used a mixture of new bagged potting soil and mushroom compost when I repotted it. I've used that compost on lots of other plants with no ill effects.

I suppose the advice you get from the Extension Service is only as good as the agents who are giving it. Oh well...

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:303847}}

How odd. Do you know what type of plant it is? Perhaps some searching on the internet could come up with some specifics about what can affect that type of plant.

Since it is a house plant and probably not native or of agricultural value in your area might explain why the extension agents have no clue why its suffering.

There are so many things that can affect a plant. Light levels, HVAC vent blowing on it, bugs, household cleaners, bacteria, fungus, viruses, and the list goes on.

Some plants do roll their leaves up when things are too dry for them. Oh well.

If your compost is hot, then composting the potting soil should be fine. Other option would be to heat the soil up in an oven or on a grill but that might not be very appetizing to you or the rest of the family.

Have you taken it to a good garden center? We were blessed with a wonderful one very close to home for over 20 years, to my disappointment it moved about 25 miles away just recently.

I used to take all kinds of things there, and usually someone could help me. For plants in the ground I would take leaves or stems, in a see thru plastic bag in case the diagnosis was bugs or disease. Those folks might be a little more familiar with house plants.

Karen

Many, Many plants grown in nurseries, but especially the garden centers of the big box stores, are pot bound and unless due care is taken when repotting, you make sure the tease the root ball apart, even repotting it into a larger pot may not change that at all. Plant roots that are pot bound will not reach out for moisture and nutrients and are very often so tightly wound that they repel moisture, so the soil all around that root ball could be nice and moist but the plant cannot get any of that since the roots will not go there.