Rutgers Cooperative Extension
The mighty hosta is no super hero, but its nemesis Hosta virus X sure is. Hosta virus X (HVX) is a rather new disease of hosta that has become a regular visitor to the Plant Diagnostic Laboratory. We get samples of hosta with the disease once or twice every summer, usually from a nursery, and we just got this year’s supply.
Line patterns caused by Hosta Virus X. Photo: Sabrina Tirpak, Rutgers PDL
The last couple of weeks in the Plant Diagnostic Laboratory brought a flurry of phone calls regarding bacterial leaf scorch. Folks are concerned about the disease and several samples have been submitted from locations in New Jersey and the New York metropolitan area.
Bacterial leaf scorch in swamp white oak. Note the yellow margin between healthy and scorched tissues. Photo: Sabrina Tirpak, Rutgers PDL
Among the boxwood blight scare come samples of pachysandra with small yellow leaf spots. And rightly so–landscape contractors and residential clients alike are worried that they have a disease in the lowly pachysandra that will move into their fancy boxwood garden. [Read more…]
Wow, what a beautiful summer. The weather has been really nice, even a little cool (we are about a week behind normal on some degree day models). The grass is greener this year and everybody is livin’ large. Everybody, but us turfgrass diagnosticians! Until today…
Small grayish-purple leaf lesions indicate an early gray leaf spot infection. Photo: Sabrina Tirpak, Rutgers PDL
Boxwood samples have been coming into the Plant Diagnostic Laboratory on a daily basis since the winter. Most of them have been diagnosed with winter damage, boxwood leafminer, or Volutella stem and leaf blight. Yesterday, we got our first sample with boxwood blight! The situation was typical of several others in New Jersey – new transplants this spring and then a bunch of dead shrubs mid-summer.
Boxwood blight infected sample is on the floor in the black plastic bag. Winter damaged boxwood sample is on the counter. Photo: Richard Buckley, Rutgers PDL
Just a short note today to keep you on your toes! And by the way, please notice how the sample was submitted – an entire plant, double-bagged…
Some may call it endoplasmic reticulum, some may run screaming from the blob, and still others might simply say that the dog just yacked in the yard. Me, I just call them cool and with all the rain and humidity in the last couple weeks, the Plant Diagnostic Lab has had a run on slime molds.
Slime mold (Physarum sp.) plasmodium on Kentucky bluegrass. Photo: Becky Sesnowich, Tinton Falls
