STREAKING VIRUS - this insidious disease first came to the attention of plant collectors over 400 years ago in 1576 by Carolus Clusius, a Flemish professor of Botany.
Also known as the ‘colour breaking’ virus that almost destroyed the Tulip industry in Denmark.
This virus is spread by two main mechanisms:
1. Unclean cutting tools which spread the virus from plant to plant.
2. Sucking insects, such as aphids, which have been proven to transfer the virus from plant to plant as they feed.
Symptoms of the virus will only be revealed upon flowering. If you see pale coloured streaking on the petals, or sudden changes from one colour to a pale colour, then you have encountered the streaking virus.
The effect of this virus is to gradually weaken and bleach the pigment in the flowers, eventually making the plant completely worthless.
The real danger is that because the virus is only revealed on flowering, if we don’t keep our tools clean and regularly spray with systemic insecticides, our own tools and insects could be spreading the virus from plant to plant without our knowledge.
Best practice to prevent the streaking virus in your collection is:
1. Disinfect all cutting tools with alcohol after making cuttings or pruning plants.
2. Use a systemic insecticide regularly to eliminate sucking insects, such as aphids from your shade house.
3. Destroy any infected plants as soon as you find them. In the BIN they go.
If we all follow these preventative measures, we can hopefully keep all of our collections as clean of infections as possible.
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