Quote:
Originally Posted by Toadwally
Yep. Seemingly flawless plants tesring positive, and other plants withs suspicious symptoms test negatively repeatedly. I'm testing only for the two main viruses.
|
Same here. I generally don't test unless there is something suspicious about a plant - failure to thrive, concerning patterns on leaves, color break on flowers (especially on Catts) I have not found a lot of virus problems - growing outside with lots of air circulation around plants and few bug problems helps. But there are some... Of course the classic is Ctt. Porcia 'Cannizaro' ... plant is vigorous, no color break on flowers, but this cultivar has been known to be virused for years. (The original FCC was virused, and it has manifested itself in the mericlones taken from that.) I grow it in an area well away from the rest of my collection. And, along with producing copious blooms in the fall, is very handy for testing my test kits. I use the Rega kits from Taiwan, which don't need refrigeration and have an 18-month shelf life (Agdia is 12 months, and because of the way they are packaged, that's pretty accurate) . But I don't use them all that fast, so it's good to know if a past-expiration strip is still good. There's the test line for sure. But beyond that, just to be sure, I test a sample of the plant now and then. And I have found that those Rega Agitest test strips are good even 2-3 years past expiration. (Yup, plant is still virused...) The difference is that the individual strips are in sealed packages - moisture is the enemy of the tests, and the Agdia strips are packaged with multiple strips in a little tube. So once open, there is air exposure that can't be avoided.
Threaded Mode
