Cabbage Conundrum

[mogs]

Hi

Bear with me, bit long winded, but hopefully relevant!

I took over an allotment in August of last year, that had been regularly cultivated under a crop rotation system, according to the previous owner who had moved to another allotment on the site a few months previously. Whilst the allotment was superficially in need of tidying up, the soil appeared to be in good body and I asked the questions about club root or any problems. Over last Autumn/Winter I have installed a raised bed system on the site, incorporated manure, according to the crop rotation guidelines and have dug over to two spades depth and removed all the weed.

Last October I bought in some plug plant Durham Spring Cabbages and planted two rows in one raised bed, having incorporated chicken pellets before planting. In February I fed the cabbages with Liquid Manure Tea. These last couple of weeks the cabbages on the right have turned a yellowish colour and look quite sickly, but the cabbages down the left of the bed, which are in the same soil, treated in exactly the same way are looking really green and healthy.

I was advised that they were short of Nitrogen, so have fed this weekend Chicken Pellets hoed in an watered copiously. Then having pulled one of the more sickly cabbages up at weekend and there was very little in terms of root system, but no sign of root fly or club root, from what I've read that looks like.

Any ideas?

[Creemteez]

Hmmm! Connundrum indeed! Having little experience of growing bracicas myself (no room till now), the only thing I can come up with is some sort of insect involvement. Watching "Big Dig" last weekend (Sky), the chap who had most success with his cabbages (the ex soldier) had put collars round the seedlings to stop Root Fly from laying their eggs in the soil and damaging the roots.
As not all of your cabbages have been affected, this may be the problem. Did you "collar them?"
At least it doesn't sound like club root.
BTW, on "Grow Your Own Veg" (Sky) last week, a blind chap grew wonderful cabbages on badly club-root-infected-soil by planting his seedlings into a large hole filled with a mix of his homemade compost, lime and crushed egg shells! Honestly they were beautiful and not a sign of the dreaded CR!
I know this may not get you out of your problem this year, but worth bearing in mind for later!
Good luck!

[sewer rat]

Hi
These last couple of weeks the cabbages on the right have turned a yellowish colour and look quite sickly, but the cabbages down the left of the bed, which are in the same soil, treated in exactly the same way are looking really green and healthy.

I was advised that they were short of Nitrogen, so have fed this weekend Chicken Pellets hoed in an watered copiously. Then having pulled one of the more sickly cabbages up at weekend and there was very little in terms of root system, but no sign of root fly or club root, from what I've read that looks like.

Any ideas?

Could be a trace element deficiency, could be the soil ph is different on one side of the bed to the other, could be that the poor root development was not due to lack of nitrogen but perhaps the soil was too wet - waterlogging is not condusive to good root development. Could be all sorts of things. Sorry not to be more help

[mogs]

I know, I've puzzeled for days - they are collared and the soil was erring on the dry side, because they are under cloches (and yes I went down the 'is one side ventilated more than the other' but when amended didn't seem to work either. Oh and I've also done the seaweed foliage spray bit as well to correct any minor nutrient deficiencies.

The PH could be the problem, thinking I could maybe have limed one half of the bed more than the other - thinking I might just get the litmus papers out and give that a whirl now.

Just thinking, maybe I mollycoddled them a bit too much! Anyway, looking on the half full cup side - 50% crop success rate is better than no crop at all! And it is my first year - so being philosophical - it's all part of the steep learning curve of veg growing and what makes it a challenge to rise to!

Thanks

Mogs

[Snadger]

Clubroot is mainly a warm weather fungus. The damage could have been done late last year and it's only when the minimal roots that were left have tried to gain enough nutrients to start growing again in spring that the results have shown in the topgrowth.

At this time of year, any brassica that is dug up in clubroot infested soil will NOT show the clubbed root symptoms.

Same with root fly which could have done it's damage in the autumn but only when the plant tried to star growing with minimal root system again would the results be seen.

Not saying it's either of the above, but if when you dig a plant up and it has no new white roots there's a strong possibility!

[Norm]

Just a long shot, but ask the previous tennant if he used any kind of weedkiller before he left the plot.