I have been checking around my garden lately and found two lilies that have distorted growth I think it is a virus and I have photos attached for everyone to give there input. I don't want to pull them out before I know for sure but I want to get them out before they infect other lilies. Here are the pics.
Here is the other.
Doesn't look viral to me. Hybrids almost always have some degree of tolerance. Symptoms are not the common ones for a virus.
Pic #2 could be cold damage. Had the affected stem emerged before the second one in the photo?
Pic #1 could be too, I suppose. But doubtful. Can't really see what is going on with the tip, where the problem seems to be originating. Sometimes you can never tell. But I am 99% sure it is not virused.
Here is a better picture of the first photo, and cold damage may be correct because we had frost about 2 weeks ago when they were emerging and I didn't cover those ones.
I agree with Leftwood, it doesn't look like virus to me. I also vote for damage due to weather conditions.
Looks like weather damage to me, Peach.
Thanks everyone that makes me feel a lot better.
So what about Pic #2? What was different about that one compared to the other normal one in the pic?
-- I am assuming they are the same named lily?
-- Was one exposed to the cold and the other not?
-- Are they two different bulbs, or one bulb that split into two? If it split to two, was that just this year, or when?
-- Notice anything peculiar about the one last summer? Lilies don't get virus over the winter, if it were a virus, I would expect some symptoms last year sometime.
Questions, questions. But the more thorough your answers, the better my reply. Another thought: could be bulb lice. Apids that like to "eat" the bulb.
They are the same lilies and I planted them this spring, also I only planted two bulbs and three sprouts came up (the third is not in the picture). So I think one of the bulbs sent up two stems. Also the one that looks healthy in picture two may have been covered during the frost, because I used a large pot to cover something else nearby the sprout and I may have covered it by accident.
Do you have a good guess as to which two sprouts came from the same bulb? If the damaged sprout is one of the two, then it cannot be a virus. Both sprouts from the same bulb would have been affected if it were a virus.
Because you had just bought the bulbs, their history is in question. I have seen similar growth on a virus susceptible lily species, when there were definite symptoms the year before. Even though hybrids always have at least some tolerance to viruses, there is still a small possibility of viral infection in yours. From the looks of the pic, that poor sprout doesn't look as though it will last into the summer. It will probably dieback as a natural phenomenon, or because it is virused.
But my best estimation is still that you have no virus.
I will keep an eye on it and the bulb I am thinking it came from is the same bulb as the other stock in that picture,(the normal stock) and what you sayed that both would show symptoms makes sense and they both don't. The other stock from the second bulb looks a lot healthier than the two in the picture and I think that is because it popped up later than the others. Will it hurt the bulb if I dig down a pit to make sure that the two are from the same bulb?
This was one I questioned last year, moved and flagged to keep watch this year. It definitely, in my opinion , has a virus.
Another view
Mags, you don't think it's just frost, do you? or that maybe it needs some epsom salts? You know me, always the Pollyanna-ish outlook..
Diann
Nope, not this time. If I question it, that's what I do too, the epsom salts really seem to help. There is definitely a different sort of look to the virused ones, as compared to a nutrient deficiency. This one I questioned last year based on the flower variegation, but having never grown that cultivar, I didn't really know what it was supposed to look like for sure. You know what I mean?
Yep, I think it's gonna be toast. :)
The ONLY thing about a virused bulb is now there's room for another lily ^_^
That's my glass half full outlook for the day
Hmmm.
Are the newer leaves displaying symptoms also, Mags?
Yes, they are. I know my camera shot is not so excellent (you guys know I try hard, right?) when it comes to the detail of these things.
The lily that was guaranteed virused last year had the same look. Some of what I deem nutrient problems, have a thinner type of leaf variegation,as I would call it. The virus-ridden ones seem almost to have a fluorescent type of green next to the normal green, in almost a camouflaged pattern. They are distinctly different.
I think intercessor might say, seeing my lily at the last year round up garden tour (Maxine too maybe) as compared to the pile of lilies I dug up, that there was a clear difference. (Andrew, I hope I'm not putting you on the spot here.)
The whole lily virus thing is really intriguing to me. It makes me want to get on a cellular level and see how many viruses it took to give it symptoms.
Then yes, if the newer leaves display the symptoms, it is a virus, you can be pretty sure.
The lily that was guaranteed virused last year
Don't most tiger lilies also carry a virus? I thought I read that somewhere. I planted mine away from the others to be safe.
The regular orange and the double form definitely carry at least one virus. The other colors of "Tiger lilies" I'm not sure of, but I would guess they do too. It could depend on their parentage. Remember, virus is never carried through the seed.
