Giving up?

[Twinsane]

Almost 15 years ago a handful of us reinstated a disused site into a thriving association run site. I’ve been growing on it and running the site ever since. I’ve almost always grown in “raised” beds and practiced no dig. Last year, all 4 of my allium beds had terrible rust and onion rot for the first time. I raise everything from seed (except garlic which until
this year was self saved) and only buy in multipurpose compost to raise seedlings. I rotated my onions as far away as possible on my plot which is slightly larger than the traditional 10 rods, but early signs appear that they still have onion rot.
I noticed that my brocolli was prematurely bolting so I decided to pull it and found it has badly infected club roots. My brussels (on the other side of my plot in a completely different bed) were wilting so I pulled that and found them just as bad. As I said, I raised them all from seed. Not only that but I gave extra plants to other plot holders iand theirs are fine. My ph meter (I know they arent very precise but I tried 3 different ones!) measured 7.1-7.3. I limed the soil etc. All of my brassicas, in 4 12x4 beds, look really sorry for themselves. I have tons more started in the polytunnel to go out later but I’m not sure theres any point.
Everything I’ve read says there’s nothing I can do. Is it even worth carryongbon if I can’t grow alliums and brassicas?

[ameno]

Are you sure that's clubroot? I've never had it myself, but that doesn't really look like the pictures I've seen. In fact that looks fairly similar to the roots of my brassicas when I pull them up, especially the ones which I left in their initial pots for too long and got a little pot bound, and they've definitely never had club root.
There are multiple club root-resistant brassica varieties you can grow, though, so it may be worth getting some seeds of those for next year.

As for this "onion rot", do you mean white rot? If they have white rot already then the bulbs should pull out of the ground easily, as most of the roots will have rotted off.
As I'm sure you know, there's not a lot you can really do about white rot. Although I have heard one method which is supposedly quite effective (although I've never had need to try it myself), and that's to raise your sets or young plants in bottomless 8cm pots of compost, then plant them out pot and all in the spring. The white rot fungus needs direct contact with the bulb in order to infect it, and so the pot of compost should insulate it from that, and the roots just grow out of the bottom as normal.

Also, even if hypothetically you find that you can no longer grow brassicas or alliums, that doesn't mean you may as well give up.
My plot has three big beds, three smaller beds (which combined are about equivalent to one of the big beds), and several smaller raised beds, and each year only about 3/4 of one of the big beds is given to brassicas and alliums combined (I grow them together, partly because I don't grow that much of them, and partly because I like to follow my onions with purple sprouting broccoli).
The rest of the space on my plot is taken up mainly by (in rough descending order of space occupied): potatoes, runner and French beans for drying, sweet potatoes, squashes, melons, peppers, sweetcorn, watermelons, tomatoes, beetroot, and carrots. Plus permanent crops like soft fruit, rhubarb and asparagus, and a sour cherry, plum, pear, peach and quince tree, and four grape vines.
I live in the southwest and grow all of these outside successfully. The sweet potatoes, especially, always give a very good crop (I still have lots of last year's crop left, and they should probably last until the end of October when this year's crop is ready).

[Twinsane]

Hi Ameno,


Thanks for replying. Yes I'm pretty sure it's clubroot. I suspected it was but confirmed it doing an online search as I've grown veg for almost 20 years and never had roots looking like those. The plants are obviously struggling too. Despite all the water they've had and the recent rain, they are wilting and they just aren't growing well. I looked into resistant varieties and there are a few for some veg but not for everything. We eat a lot of brassicas so I grow a lot. I doubt I will be giving it up right away but when I found the clubroot today, I was really fed up! It's been a tough couple of years on the plot with one thing and another. Will look at sweet potatoes next year I think

[MelanieSW]

Sorry to read about your woes Twinsane .
I'm in a similar position, to my horror I pulled out some radishes with clubroot today which means the previously disease free side of my allotment is now affected too. I have some perennial kale cuttings ready to go in as the existing plants are reaching the end of their life, now I'm running of space for brassicas. White onion rot is also present in a couple of beds.
However I don't plan to give up, my key crops are tomatoes, potatoes, beans and curcubits anyway, and I have a lot of soft fruits. Can you refocus your growing plans? It's a shame about alliums and brassicas, but there are so many options besides those.

[ameno]

Will look at sweet potatoes next year I think

I recommend the variety T65. It's heavy cropping and more cold-tolerant than most. And I would recommend growing through black plastic, to help retain heat (as well as suppress weeds and keep in moisture).

[Twinsane]

Thanks MelanieSW , I'm sorry to hear you have this problem too. My key crops have always been my brassicas so I'm going to try getting them much bigger before planting them out. The cost of the compost is then a factor though plus I'm thinking that the clubroot could have been in the compost I purchased because that is the only outside element I've used. I'll also look at clubroot resistant varieties next year. For now I think I'll just take out all the brassicas for the beds that I know have it and see how the other two go.

I will try to remember that next year ameno,thank you for the suggestion.

[Nicos]

Lovely to see you Twinsane - very frustrating/ disappointing as you say
I’ve never had either so can’t advise you in any way apart from reminding you that any increased cost will still outweigh the cost and flavour of shop bought veggies.
Fingers crossed the advice ^^^^does the trick.

[Mark_Riga]

For anions, I've had some success growing autumn planted sets (or last year, seeds sown late August - Senshyu Yellow). Regular inspection is then needed for first signs of the desease. The crop isn't as heavy as maincrop but could be with more care. They mature a lot earlier and white rot has less chance to develop. Last year I had no trouble at all but this year, I noticed the first sign on just 1 onion on 5th May. A few others developed subsequently so I pulled the crop early in mid June but still had a reasonable crop. Any onion affected, I take out a 'ladies' spadefull of soil and discard. The whole crop is usable, I just needed to use up the infected ones first.

[Twinsane]

Sorry for not replying sooner.

Well after my initial dolly throwing, I've left the brassicas in place and some still look okay. I've chucked more lime around them and given them extra feed to see if it helps. I might get a bit of a crop. I've got stacks of young brassicas to plant out and I'm not sure where they're going to go now. I'm going to keep potting them up while I decide - they may even end up in the flower border at home! I've purchased all the club root resistant seed varieties I can find to give them a try next year.

As to the onions - I don't want to jinx it but the bed of zebrune and long red florence seem to be doing well. No idea what's happening below the surface as yet but as Mark said, the crop looks usable