southern blight lol... to much water, heat and humidity... dig the roots and soak them for a minute in a solution of 1/10 bleach/water.... then pot them up and hope for the best... remove all rot... pour bleach solution all over the ground and let it dry good
John

excellent picture of southern blight btw... and i see your maple whirly birds... I feel your pain... I have the same trees and here in Kentucky I have to be careful not to bring southern blight into my beds... the key is to water when its cool... but sometimes when it rains rains rains and its hot... it just happens...
John

Absolutely is southern blight (Sclerotium rolfsii). The mustard seed like structures are the sclerotia which are the overwintering structures. Thorough cleanup of diseased tissue and the sclerotia will help minimize it in future years.

The only fungicide I have read of that has been effective as a curative is flutolanil, and I am not aware of any over the counter formulations of it. Tebuconazole has shown little help as a curative but is reported to be very good as a preventative if applied in future years before symptoms appear. I believe there are consumer formulations of tebuconazole out there if you read the fine print on fungicide labels. The use of any other fungicide would most likely be a waste of time and money.

I had a couple hostas hit hard last year. All I did for them was clean up of the soil and damaged tissue. This year they look okay, but a little smaller with no evidence of the disease. But then it is ridiculously dry here and I have given up watering, which would encourage a new episode.

Wow! I thought it was an insect for sure, I would have never guessed those were little capsules ready to spread disease. Yuck. Water, heat and humidity sums up the situation perfectly. I knew that soil was too dense to be good for that Hosta but I was too lazy to change it. Live and learn!

Thanks so much, John.

Thanks for the additional info Buckeye15, we must have passed each other in preview!

Didn't you just get that hosta from Mr. Cory in Chillicothe?

I better check the ones I got from him.

I did but all the others I got from him are doing fine. This one was sitting in a sunnier spot than the others, I didn't move it around because the growing medium is heavy in just that one container. I'm sure the sun beating on that black container didn't help matters any.

I will check the others just to make sure they are okay, though.

I-Like-to-grow, what is this "rain" you speak of?? I Googled it and it appears to be water from a non-hose source. Jeanne, you appear to have more water than you need. You could send some our way! :)