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Dutch Growers Continue to Improve Quality on Hosta Production

Dutch perennial growers, exporters and the Naktuinbouw, the Dutch quality inspection service for horticulture are in the process improving the quality of Hosta production in order to solve the problems related to Hosta Virus X.

Dutch perennial growers, exporters and the Naktuinbouw, the Dutch
quality inspection service for horticulture are in the process
improving the quality of Hosta production in order to solve the
problems related to Hosta Virus X.

Growers now submit their Hosta stock to Naktuinbouw, the independent
inspection service, where the ELISA test is used to determine whether
or not the hostas are infected with Hosta virus X. The ELISA test uses
antibodies to seek out the virus’ presence in the plants and was
developed specifically to detect Hosta Virus X.

The Dutch understand the importance of exporting clean plants and
exporters are now able to ask their suppliers for ELISA test results as
a guarantee that they are shipping only top quality plant material At
the same time, growers are able to use these test results to ensure the
quality of their replanting stock.

Hosta Virus X has appeared in Hosta plants since 2004. Plants that
become infected with the disease must be destroyed and it can often
take  years for symptoms to show. This means that even symptom-free
plants in infected batches are considered infected and can act as
carriers for the disease.

–Plant Publicity Holland