Clubroot

[Snadger]

Just taken over a new allotment this year and istantly planted a brassica seedbed. Summer Cabbage, Winter cabbage,Cauli, Purple Sprouting Brocolli and Kale (three kinds)
Plants got off to a good start and were netted to keep pesky pidgeons off
Started to plant them out in prepared beds and other allotmenteers watched in wonder
Then I got to thinking, not many people seem to be growing brassicas here?
Then the old chap next to me volunteered " Never grow brassicas here, place is riddled with clubroot"
Wonderful, me thinks!! I've just filled 1/3rd of my allotment with them!
For anyone not familiar with it, it is a horrible disease caused by a fungus that lives for 15 yrs. Roots are grotesque and plants are stunted.
I just wondered if anyone had ideas about living with it and is it common on all sites? I know about liming and even using rhubarb leaves to combat it. I reckon I will try direct seeding next year as the few I left in the seedbed don't seem to have suffered as badly. Possibly because they have a taproot which wasn't broken while transplanting. Is this the answer? Your views please!

[nick the grief]

You gan raise them in modules & then pot them on into someting a bit bigger & plant them out, as you are planting a bigger plant it may just get you past the worsed of it.

The only other alternatives used to be a paste that you mixed up with a clubroot control & dipped the roots in that & then planted they - Don't know if thats still available. & Armillartox used to advertise the following

Clubroot
Dilution Application
Dibber hole 100:1 ½ litre
Planting area 100:1 20 litres per metre 3 weeks before planting/sowing

Clubroot is a soil-borne fungus, which attacks Brassica’s, including Wallflowers, Swedes and Turnips. Spores from the fungus can lie dormant for many years whatever the ground has been used for during that time.
Drench the planting area or dibber hole during a dry spell No need to lime the area, as Armillatox will correct the pH levels.
No need to use any herbicides as Armillatox will sterilise the weed seeds.
No need to fertilize the area, as Armillatox will make up the deficiencies.

But of cause you can't use that now

The only other alternative would be to cover it all with black ploythene & steralise the soil with something like Basamid but that is really desparate stakes

[Snadger]

I've googlised Armillatox and found you can still get it...same formulae, but only for cleaning paths. My paths are looking very dirty at the moment!

[nick the grief]

Both Armillatox & ***** refused to spend the £20k+ I think it was that it was going to cost to have it registered for use on vegetables - good old EEC bless them. so they were going to carry on & make it for the US market where they don't have stupid laws (if they do they can always used the guns they are allowed too have )

Then they had a change of heart & decided to make it as a path & pation clener instead but I think their website never got taken off Still I've got he instructions for me but I can't tell any one about it

[Pooleman]

No apologies for resurrecting this thread, but having very recently taken over an allotment but also having been a previous plot holder many years ago, I was interested to see whether there had been any developments in combatting this disease.

I recently spoke with an allotment holder who had gardened there for 43 years! He informed me that he had had success with excavating a hole, dropping a small amount of minced Garlic in the bottom, the hole topped up with fresh compost - the Brassicas were then planted in this compost.

Anyone else heard of/tried this method?

[Bill Door]

No, good subject to discuss.

I have looked on google and see that many suggestions are made but nothing definitively stops club root in its tracks.

I think the main pointers are
1) use plenty of lime before planting.
2) start off plants in pots with a bit of lime in the compost
3) keep the ground weed free
4) try a 6 year rotation
5) (most important) do whatever suits you best.

Interesting that your neighbour uses minced up garlic. I wonder if he used garlic powder if he would get a better result? Garlic powder helps with onion rot so may be we will have to spread garlic powder over the whole garden/allotment!

Never had the problem myself but when I get a garden and allotment it may rear its ugly head.

Bill

[Jungle Jane]

There's an old thread here that talks about success with rhubarb to combat clubroot.
http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...arb_82448.html

[Bill Door]

Yes the rhubarb bit is contrary to the lime bit. Rhubarb would seem to be acidic which is the opposite of lime. I wonder if there isn't some other compound involved that affects the fungi.

Funnily enough we never hear much about market gardeners having that much problem with clubroot. That is unless they want to keep it quiet. I have seen fields of cabbage that look very well. So how do they cope? Is it because they have enough ground to have a 6 year rotation?

Bill

[Snadger]

Yes the rhubarb bit is contrary to the lime bit. Rhubarb would seem to be acidic which is the opposite of lime. I wonder if there isn't some other compound involved that affects the fungi.

Funnily enough we never hear much about market gardeners having that much problem with clubroot. That is unless they want to keep it quiet. I have seen fields of cabbage that look very well. So how do they cope? Is it because they have enough ground to have a 6 year rotation?

Bill

I'm probably repeating myself here but clubroot is a thing close to my heart! The first plot I had was riddled with it unbeknown to me! I had good success with rhubarb leaves (The active ingredient is Oxalic acid which does kill the fungus)
I have managed to eradicate it from my present plot by good husbandry. I did use clubroot resistant brassicas for one season but soon went back to normal brassicas as in the breeding for clubroot resistance they seem to have forgone taste.

I do know that it is more prevalent on acid soil and farmers usually put a lot of magnesium limestone on to the fields to raise the pH before growing brassicas, the main culprit being oil seed rape.

[Dalrimple]

just seen this post, I put two slivers of rubarb in with the cabages I planted this time and the three I used as a control with no rubarb on did not grow well, the rest where great . atb Dal