Just take a piece of any leaf about the size of a quarter to test. If the plant has HVX (which I don't think it does) then all parts are infected. Just follow the directions and post the results.

As for dividing, I would take it out of the pot and wash off all the potting medium so that you can see where to cut. You want to get a piece that has roots, crown and leaf in order to have a viable plant (or at least roots and crown). Looking at the pic, it seems like you should be able to do that without much difficulty.

I would then plant the two blue pieces together. Then you'll have Paul's Glory and Wheaton Blue (a very nice blue IMO).

Steve

I think I will give them a little root stimulator and wait until October 1 to do this. That gives me 6 weeks until average first killing frost. Usually, the heat doesn't break until then, either.

I'll do the test and report on the results in the next few days.

bkay

Hi Bkay,

About testing, on a plant that is this well connected it shouldn't matter what part you test, though on a larger plant taking small bits of a few leaves from around the plant can help get a better test (one side could be negative but the other positive if the virus hasn't moved all through the plant yet).

I'm not certain that this plant is actually sporting, though. It almost looks like the new eyes have some variegation but simply aren't showing the yellow centers yet. Paul's Glory can do this sometimes, coming up blue-green and then changing color later, so I wouldn't touch it until you are sure.

Thanks, Chris. Spring might be a better time to do it, anyway.

bkay

BKay, are you going to test for HVX now though? I have 4 test strips left over from my test of Blue Angel and Winter Snow.
To make sure I did not overwhelm the test strip, I got a quarter and an XActo knife and cut my leaf samples to size upon the quarter.

It was interesting to watch the leaf give up its green parts and turn into a translucent empty frame, with the test solution having the green.

As I waited for the results to show, I became alarmed when one stripe showed up, and nothing else. Thought it was the bad one, but it was actually the stripe which indicates the strip worked, the test results were negative.

Talk about a relief!! Well, it made all the difference in the world in how I viewed those hosta in the ground. Instead of problem children, I could enjoy them like any of my other hosta, and appreciate the growth instead of worrying over infected roots spreading spreading the virus.

So it is my feeling that testing it now will lay any fears of HVX to rest.

Actually, I was going to trash it because it's so ugly. I wasn't even going to test it. With the recent threads about Paul's Glory and Wheaton Blue, I looked again. I already have the test kits, and they're only good for a year, so why not?

bkay

Keep your test kits in the refrigerator and they will keep a long time. Keep the strips tightly sealed in the ziploc pouch they came in (with the desiccant pack) so they don't absorb moisture and keep the buffer bags in a separate ziploc so they don't evaporate through the plastic. Keeping them cold like this will help them keep for a very long time, even a couple years past the expiration date. So long as the buffer solution hasn't thickened by losing moisture through the plastic and so long as the strips stayed dry and haven't absorbed moisture they will still work fine for a long time.

Chris

Thanks, Chris.

bkay

This hosta tested negative.

For those who did not see this the first time around, a photo from then is below.

If you think I should give more detail from the original posts, let me know. Gardenweb doesn't have my email address, but it is bkay_2000 (at) yahoo (dot)com.

bkay

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