I believe many variegated plants are the result of a viral infection. As many gardeners, myself included, is less than diligent in sterilizing pruning shears after each use, could this be a method by which non-variegated plants can be infected with viruses from variegated ones? I've not heard of this happening but it seems plausible.
As usual, it varies. Some variegations are viral, but not necessarily many. Mode of transmission may include shears for some, not include them for others.
Hi, Ron. With regards to the ones that are the result of viral infection, how likely or unlikely is it for infection to occur by this means?
Such information may not be available. If you can come up witht the name of a specific virus that causes a variegation, then you can search for information about how it is transmitted. I've heard the the coloration pattern in maples like Acer pseudoplatanus 'Brilliantissimum' is virally induced, but don't know which virus or viruses may be involved.
The whole idea of sterilizing pruning shears and other pruning equipment came about due to Bacterial Canker in Fruit Trees. Research back in the late 60's, early 70's noted the exchange of the bacteria from one plant to the other after controlled non sterilized pruning. In the mid to late 70's studies here were conducted on other type trees such as native Oaks, certain Maples and Eucalyptus with Deep Bark Canker. The sterilizing of pruning shears is more important when dealing with a bacteria rather than a virus or a fungus, although the latter becomes an issue depending on what kind of fungus. Any airborne transmitted fungus or bacteria can become an issue and thus sterilization steps should be mandated working from tree to tree and in some cases shrub to shrub. Viruses are notoriously not transmitted by air. Even infectious viral diseases in humans are generally not transmitted by air but by moisture instead. If the pruning shears are dry then the ability to transmit a virus from plant to plant becomes almost nil. The answer is it is highly unlikely that a virus can be transmitted from one plant to another by virtue of pruning. You cannot equate beneficial viruses with virulent ones. The variegation in many plants is caused by a beneficial virus. There have been studies that isolated some of them and have identified them at a few Universities here in California back in the late 80's, early 90's with work on Camellias and Roses and in the 90's at two Universities that I know of in Japan on a few forms of Maples. I seriously doubt much or any of that information can be found online as much of those studies were never posted online to start with and one study I know of on Camellias was taken down off the internet back in 2001. If you want to search around online use a search engine such as WebCrawler or Yahoo that still have the older online links listed in their databases as Google will most likely not have the old online links any more but is concentrating more so on the newer and more popular links instead. Jim
Thanks, Ron and Jim, for your feedback. My question was general in nature and not directed at a specific plant although it did come about as a result of the purchase of a variegated weeping fig (is it natural or infected?). To clarify my initial question, I'm wondering how likely it would be to cause a non-variegated plant to become variegated and/or negatively affected through contamination from a variegated one. The plants that I deal with are indoors and therefore isolated so I'm not so concerned about detrimental infections as long as my plants are healthy. If one is not healthy I would take special precautions (i.e. sterilize). It seems like overkill to sterilize the shears after usage on each plant under these circumstances.
