Does look rather suspicious. Contact the vendor and get their input. Personally, I'd toss it....

Pieter

Get some test strips and find out for sure.

Agdia test strips

I'd do all of the above - contact, test (the vendor should supply you with a strip) and toss it. I'd wait until it goes dormant, though. I'd toss it no matter the result of the test, though.

bkay

The ink bleed seems to be a sign of HVX. I would spray over and under the leaves with 18% glyphosate, covering the neighboring hostas, to try and kill it now. It is getting close to going dormant so you should wait until spring to ensure it is dead. If not treat it again in the Spring. There is no problem with leaving it in place over the winter as long as you do not use unsanitized tools on it and other hosta. It can live forever without spreading to other hosta unless you dig around it. Looking at your picture the roots of adjoining hosta might be close to this plant and digging around it could spread HVX to the adjoining hosta. There is no reason to hurry up and dig it out. The chance of HVX transmission does go down in the fall, however it can remain infective in minute bits in the soil for at least two years.

MANY years of hostas..no virus ever..until last spring when I had one..sorry old_dirt..at least we both escaped for a long time..

contact your seller privately ... and advise them ...

dig it up.. throw it away.. clean shovel ...

ken

I recently read you should spray with something like Round-Up. The article said the virus can not spread if the plant/roots is 100% dead. Leave in ground until completely dead. Sorry I don't have link to share. Good luck.

My sympathies, Old Dirt. Get it out of the ground now before it can infect other ones nearby. So sorry. Striptease from our local HD look just like yours. Call that vendor.

American Hosta Society and the Hosta Library have the best information on the way to deal with HVX.

AHS and Hosta Library

-Babka

HVX is transmitted only by a cut or abrasion of both the infected hosta and another hosta. Hastily digging it up is the worst approach possible. If you want to dig it up wait until it is definitely headed into dormancy. The closer it is to dormancy the least chance of transmission. An HVX infected hosta will live indefinitely and never infect another hosta unless sap from the infected hosta enters another through a cut or abrasion.

HVX, and every other virus, are parasitic and survive only in a live host. I would kill it first. I would dig it up if you are certain that you can remove 100% of any living root, crown or stems; basically any microscopic part of the plant. HVX has been shown to survive over 2 years in bits of live hosta tissue in soil.

American hosta Society, Dr. Lockheart

Dr. Lockheart, latest research, American Hosta Society

Jon

Susan, what was the source of your article? We're all interested in finding good scientific information regarding how to deal with virused hostas.

Without a doubt that is HVX. It is on newer and older leaves, so wouldn't be from something like spring frost damage. Save yourself a test strip.

HVX is difficult if not impossible to spread while dormant, so wait until a frost and dig it up, getting as much if not all of the roots possible. No need to wait a year or longer to wait for roundup to work, and as Jon has said in the past, the fall is the wrong time to spray roundup and won't work when you spray in the fall.

This plant is also far enough away from your other hostas so just dig it up after a frost.

Any hosta is certainly alive during the Winter, simply dormant. I have never seen any data that says tissue left in soil isn't infective when dormancy ends. There is no data on this that I have seen.

Glyphosate interrupts plant enzymes and basically causes the plant to starve. This kills the hosta. dead hostas cannot harbor HVX. All virus need live tissue to survive.

Also, roots of hostas can be very long. There is only one sure way to be 100% sure HVX cannot be spread and that is to kill the hosta in situ.

Jon

To all readers: please do not use round up or gly herbicides to control this. It remains in the soil, it contaminates the water table, it does not break down as advertised. I have areas of my yard poisoned by a neighbor trying to kill a locust tree in another neighbors yard that is still 3 years later toxic to my hosta, foxglove and dogwood trees. I used it to control an infestation of lesser celandine that killed more of my own plants and my lawn then the celandine. Round up is strongly associated with breast and other cancers. It is associated with immune system disorders. It is a hormone disrupter in humans. Heat kills plants and virus. I had a brick walk my husband built for me many years ago, it was beautiful 50 feet long and 4 feet wide. After a few years it started getting weedy, ants so on and so forth. Hubby kept spraying it but it never entirely cleared up and those horrible shriveled dead plants in the walk looked awful. My Dad came to stay one year in his motor home and he said what the heck is wrong with you? that walk is a mess. I came home that day from work and my Dad had used a small propane torch to clean all those weeds out. Burned them and swept them away, the walk was clean for many years. My dad grew up on a potato farm in Cutchogue, my mom's family was Vogel's florist and the Bethpage Black course. Burning diseased plants was a common thing for both of them. I'm sorry about being so wordy! but i'd rather hit an infected plant with a bunsen burner than poison a significant part of my plants.

The following link contains a fascinating article dealing with glyphosate toxicity

Pieter

Pieter..sobering information..have never used Roundup and don't think I'll start..I'll pull all the weeds I can..and if I don't get them all so be it..