canna virus

[dimitris]

Hello ,

I recently bought some canna rhizomes , they were packed in transparent plastic bags having a photo of their flowers , those are ordered from nurseries in Netherlands by our nurseries or flower centers every year in sping .

Anyway , when they start growing new foliage the leaves were not looking that good , but I wasn't worried because that happens sometimes on the first leaves but unfortunately the newer leaves were even worst , so I start to search about canna diseases and found about canna virus .

Since now the only problem having with cannas were the slugs .

There is something else that can I do to save the plants from death and prevent the spread to my other cannas ?

There are two cannas that I really don't want to destroy , Cleopatra and Pretoria which are not easy to find in Greece .

[David in Berkeley]

You will need to destroy them if you don't want to infect your other Cannas. Can you get reimbursed from the nursery for selling infected plants. The Dutch supplier should know better, and be the responsible party to reimburse the importing nursery.

[WestCoastGal]

Dimitris, I posted a canna virus thread back in February that had a video link from one of our university ag departments on the subject. Believe there are 5 viruses actually identified and they were discussed in the video. You might find it informative: http://www.palmtalk.org/forum/index.php?/topic/40703-canna-viruses/

It sounds like you got infected plants and there is no cure so they do need to get destroyed. If you have any photos of your infected canna it might be helpful to newbies here if you could post a few. There really aren't too many photos online that I've found illustrating the symptoms of the viruses and it displays differently on different canna to some degree.

We planted some nursery potted Canna intrigue last year in our yard and they are flowering now. I'm ordering a few rhizomes from the source mentioned by a fellow member in my thread, missed out on them for this year, but will give them a try next. Best bet when buying the rhizome is to plant it in a pot and wait for the first 4 leaves to appear to see if the plant is infected and either destroy or plant out depending on its health.

I would definitely go back to your source for them and let them know you were sold infected plants. There are places that are doing testing to develop and propogate good stock and clearly are the ones to buy from, but with other sources selling infected plants it's hard to see how the virus will stop infecting gardens everywhere.

The university program discussed in the above video BTW has bred virus free Cleopatras which can be bought on their website: http://www.vfcanna.com . Didn't look to see if they will ship to Greece but you can check them out. If they don't ship directly, ask them if there is a wholesaler/retailer they might ship to you can order through. In fact one of their partners Horn Canna Farms in Oklahoma sells both the Cleopatra and Pretoria you mentioned. So both of those should be able to be bought virus free.

[WestCoastGal]

Don't know if you came across this UK website already while looking for info on the viruses, but if not it does have some useful info and a few photos of infected plants from a few varieties.

http://www.canna-collection.org.uk/canna-virus.html

[dimitris]

Thank you very much for your reply and for the additional informations .

All the cannas I bought this year are all dead , I had them in an isolated place just to avoid the possibility to infect my other plants .

I wanted to let them flower to set some seeds before they get burned but they didn't make it that stage . They get extra yellow , shriveled and died , although they produce some new plants I dig them out and burned them .

Unfortunately I didn't take any photos of them but I take some pictures today from my canna cleopatra clump , those might have another type of virus not that aggressive as the last ones and I am thinking that because it's the second year I have them and until now plants die many months after flowering .

Of course last years foliage hasn't so much signs of virus , they haven't set seed yet but I hooe they will .

Here's some pictures :

[Kostas]

Dimitris,

Unfortunately plants that come with an incurable virus are not worth keeping or trying to save at all,no matter how rare,as they will never get better and you only risk infecting more of your plants and neighbouring plants and thus increasing the plants that have to be destroyed to contain it. So it really is worth it destroying plants you know are virused. Believe me,i know how hard it can be as i am into bananas,which have a number of viruses that can affect them and i always have to keep new,potted bananas away from my collection(300km away actually,to be safe) till they grow some,check them in detail and i am sure they are totally healthy. Also,certain banana genotypes(AAB) have the virus DNA incorporated in them through evolution but inactive,non-symptomatic and non-infective. Under certain conditions,which can be triggered by stress(such as shipping,various disease prevention treatments,Tissue Culturing,etc),cold,flowering,randomly,these genotypes(AAB) can have the incorporated viral sequences activated and start replication and symptom expression. My very favourite banana subgroup,the Mysore subgroup,is quite prone to this and i have had to destroy newly arrived and newly established pups of Mysore varieties and other rare AAB varieties 3-4times,and these were not easy to get at all. But i knew they weren't any good since as the virus was untreatable. So i did the right thing,destroyed them and searched for another source. Took me a year and some luck,but i managed to source them from healthy motherplants and have them arrive,receive the bleach treatment and establish while remaining virus free,and live and grow healthy to this date and should continue to do so in the mild climate of Pyrgos.

Anyway,i would destroy them and not wait for seed. I have seen healthy clumps of both cultivars in public and private plantings in Athens,so they shouldn't be rare. Plus,i am sure there are many sources for these from all over the world and with a few tries,you should end up with a healthy one much faster than waiting these to seed and growing from seed then,risking infection of your healthy ones in the meantime.

I don't grow Canna at all,so i don't say this for me but for you and for all the healthy Canna in Katakolo