"Spider" wrote in message
...
On 10/01/2012 21:50, Phil Gurr wrote:
wrote in message
...
A few years ago, someone helpfully posted a recipe which used aspirin to
help cure virussed plants. I'm sure I marked it as interesting, but now
cannot find it.

I have a patch of isolated Leucojum bulbs in the garden which are
displaying virus-like symptoms. When in flower, the green marking on
each
petal is elongated into a central stripe, which is potentially *very*
attractive. Sadly, there is some distortion in the flowerheads (due to
virus?) which spoils their beauty and prevents me from propagating them.

I'm really interested in curing the virus and growing these bulbs on to
find out if the attractive striping i)persists without the virus, and
ii)if that striping is generally stable over a few generations without
reverting to the virussed distorted from, which certainly isn't
attractive.

Does anyone remember the aspirin recipe or, indeed, have any other
advice?
Thank you for your time.

Standard treatment to remove virus from chrysanth stools is hot water.
Stools are immersed in water at around 126F. for five minutes and then
plunged into cold water, prior to boxing up. The old 'Burco' type boiler
was
ideal for this. I have also experimented with Dahlia tubers and found
that
they require ten minutes for the treatment to be effective. Leucojum
bulbs
should respond well to this treatment, a large saucepan is all that you
need
but take care that the water does not rise above 130F.

Phil



Thanks for that, Phil. I must admit the idea of scalding my precious
bulbs is worrying, but I am taking notes. I will try the aspirin solution
first, in the knowledge that I can try scalding if it doesn't work.
Should I just scald the entire bulb as it grows in its pot, or remove all
the soil from it and then plunge it? I suspect there are roots now, since
it's in growth already; will these survive scalding, or should I wait till
the bulbs are dormant and rootless and try then. Any ideas? I ask this
because I understand that bulbs will not replace their roots when damaged,
as other plants do.

It can only be done with dormant bulbs and tubers.

Phil