This has been happening to this Hosta for the last 3 years. It is in a large bed with about 22 other Hosta's yet only 2 seem to be affected. There are in shade / filered sun underneath large Spruce Trees. I might add that the Impatiens planted around the Hosta's here are also doing poorly this year.
It almost looks as though it's being burnt. What a pity Droopy is on holiday as she would probably know what your problem is.
I'm not leaving until Monday, I'm just not on as often as I normally am. Our hostas look like that if they get too much sun for their liking. Did you have frosts after the leaves unfurled? Could cause the kind of damage you're showing. It could also be a fungus attack. We've got one who's suffered from fungus two years running. We're moving it next year to see if that helps. I have no idea what to put on it to help it fight the spots. Edit: Benomyl or Thiram might actually help if the hosta has fungus. We haven't got any of those chemicals here of course, so I'll have to find a substitute.
My first thought was scorch too. I wondered if it was because of being watered while the sun was on it? Then I thought maybe it was getting too MUCH water? The leaves were perfect and looked like the pictures after just a few days.
It's a bit of a mystery to me. Scorch would probably be in spots all over the leaf, wouldn't it? It can't be overwatering. It rains a lot here some summers, but we've never had a hosta going brown so quickly. Last summer it rained nearly all of July and most of August. The rest of the garden looked horrible, but the hostas didn't. How about wind? I know some hostas need shelter from the wind. Winds could dry the plant out quickly. Are the affected plants in some wind path maybe? They're not getting ready for autumn already? I've leafed through my book looking for descriptions of disease that can cause a hosta to wilt like yours, but the author claims there are very few diseases that affect hostas, so I'm really in the dark here.
Thanks for this. I have several of these and some of them got the brown areas on the ends of the leaves like the picture above. I didn't know what had happened to them.
I thought it might have been leaf scorch too, maybe caused by spraying or sprinkling too much strong fertiliser? Since it's on the margins and the Impatiens isn't doing too well either, have you changed your mulch or fertiliser?
To me, your hostas look like they are drying out and need more water. The soil could be lacking in nutrients too. If they were my hostas and impatiens, I would be adding more compost to the soil.
It's strange that only 2 are affected and 20 are not. I'm sure you've analyzed this, Netty, but I'm curious... Are the 2 next to one another? Or of a different type than the other 20? Or where they get more/less water/sun? Could those 2 have some little pest or disease in the root system? I have a little bed where hostas didn't make it and I've always wondered why.
No Daisybeans, they weren't the same type or next to each other. The cause is still unknown. I'll be watching those 2 Hosta's very carefully this spring.
