What part of the country are you located? That makes a difference to know what might be happening to them. I would remove all the dirt from the roots and clean any rot that may be present, maybe dip in a weak bleach solution and replant. Add some good compost to the hole. Good Luck!

big city name ..

i would heal them into mother earth.. and let her care for them .. rather than mess with pots..

imo .. most DL can be throw.. bare root on the driveway.. for winter.. and wouldnt even mind if hit by the snowblower...

the only way to kill them.. would be either.. paying 100 dollars for them [.. in which case they will commit suicide on the way home...}

OR...

love them to death by trying to coddle them thru a winter they really dont care about.. but which you could screw up very easily..

unpot.. shove them in a temporary nursery bed.. water them in ... and move them to permanent sites next spring.. no fuss.. no muss... very little risk ...

if you insist on pots.. let us know.. along with location.. and we can advise in that regard also ...

ken

Big city .... what? Im in midwest USA on border between zone 4-5. Have no problem or question about over-wintering in pots, as Ive done it successfully for many things, for many years. I do know some things just dont do well in pots, period end of story, so yeah I agree it's a good idea to put these in the ground until I can give them their "forever home" in the spring. So then in spring Im sure I will still have the disease organisms because as I said before, I had worsening symptoms even before I took them out and put them into pots. In fact that was one of the motivations for taking them out in the first place with the idea of relocating or seeing how they would do in pots.

Will mild bleach solution to the plant be enough to get rid of the organisms, do they continue to live in the soil? Havent decided whether they will go in an all new bed with fresh soil vs old one that's being just renovated.

Still wondering whether leaf streak (and other possible fungal organisms) continue to live on in the soil for any length of time in which case maybe I would replace the soil where they used to be planted ( to depth of 12-18 inches)? In the meantime I was happy to discover that Autumn Red does still exist and is actually widely available even at Walmart in case I need to get more - it was a heirloom variety developed in the 1940s - imho prettier and more nicely shaped than some of the big floppy modern ones!