[pbs] Virus treatment

Mary Sue Ittner msittner at mcn.org
Thu Apr 15 10:34:48 EDT 2004


Dear All,

Jim Shield's said this week:
"Another way of cleaning up virus infected bulbs is by heat treatment.  It 
undoubtedly varies by bulb species and pest species, but 55 C for an hour 
is perhaps close to what you can do.  Rather than discard valuable but 
virus infected bulbs, try heat treating them first."

We have discussed virus many times on this list and the consensus always 
seemed to be that throwing out virused material was the only way to go. Can 
you give us more particulars about this new information? Who has done it, 
were the bulbs tested before and after, do you put them in an oven, etc.? 
Is the evidence anecdotal (like with aspirin which has been suggested as a 
treatment in the past) or have there been careful scientific experiments? I 
am sure we'd all like to know more.

Mary Sue



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