Topic: White rot - just so I know....!!

[fosteri]

What does white rot actually look like?? Is it white?  ;D ;D

Hopefully our seed spuds should be going in the ground within the next couple of weeks, and as we are not exactly sure what has been in the ground before I want to be sure when they are earthed that they are not diseased....... ::)

Thanks,

Louisa xx

[john_miller]

White rot is a fungus that only attacks members of the onion family. It will not affect potatoes.

[tim]

And doubt that you could see it in the ground.

Have a look at this - be warned!

http://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profiles0800/onion_rot.asp

[TULIP-23]

Tim ;)

Checked the RHS : Found the Advice: Gardening Calender

Exceptionally Good............THank You

Mike

[fosteri]

Doh, Ok so I even got the wrong vegetable!!!!!

Thanks for the posts.....

Louisa xxx

[moonbells]

So if anyone bought a bag of onion sets and a couple of them looked a bit dubious, would they junk the lot?

It's one of the reasons I plant sets in modules - any that don't grow or look squishy just don't end up in the ground, but I don't think this can ensure I don't catch it if there are spores on the other bulblets.  I had to chuck out several shallots the other week from a Very Reputable Supplier before planting the rest, as they were rather manky.

At least this is one good excuse for keeping careful rotation records, so you can avoid any areas which later show to be infected. I somehow got sweetcorn smut in 2003 (it's common in very hot conditions, apparently!) which means I have to avoid a pair of my raised beds for 5+ years,  but I can do it without ruining the rotation too badly as I have four beds per rotation group and the other two are fine.

moonbells

[Mrs Ava]

If your onion sets are from a reputable supplier, I would assume they are lurgy free (she says with her fingers and toes crossed) but I do bin soft or manky sets but this is because I already have white rot present and want to try and plant the strongest healthies bulbs I can to stand a chance of harvesting anything.

[tim]

moonbells - I think that there's a difference between the squidgy mould you often get from 'reputable suppliers' & white rot - which I don't think would be showing at the set stage anyway.

But whatever you do, there can be no guarantee. We always bought from Marshalls, so it must have come in on their sets at some time. I was then a little cavalier in my cleaning up, not being as aware of the dangers in those days.

And now you mention it, my garlic planted 3/2 is only just starting to come through. In a raised bed. New soil.

[moonbells]

Thanks Tim - they were my reputable supplier too! Though have never had to chuck stuff out from them before.  The Topper shallots were late arriving and they said they were waiting for them to come in when I phoned to chase, so they don't grow their own. Who knows where they get them from now?
 
Makes you wonder if it's not better to save your own shallots and grow onions from seed if you know you don't have rot already.   Sounds like it.  I hope I haven't caught it, anyway... 

You any idea if the heat treated sets are less likely to have diseases? I have been growing new fen globe for a couple of years.  Got one fantastic crop and one not-so-good last year, and am currently awaiting delivery for this year. 

moonbells

[tim]

Grown them since Pontius was a Pilot!!

[moonbells]

Struth!
 
:)

And this is despite the rot? WOW!

[tim]

Hasten to say NO! This was 2003. We had about 1/3 of that last year.

[moonbells]

oh. :(

Mind you, I only had a poor crop in 04 as well, so perhaps it was just the season.
(Not getting them in early didn't help either!)

moonbells

[Multiveg]

Sowed 62 onions last year - only harvested 7? Not due to white rot - due to something far far worse - a pest that Bob Flowerdew mentions in one of his books (but seldom seen in the pest pages of other books). No cure and difficult preventative measures so just have to put up with it. I believe it is the same type of pest that got to Pippa Greenwood's potato labels one year.

[tim]

What next!!

[Mrs Ava]

Oh MV, poor you, and this pest is quite widespread!  I have them on both my garden and my allotment!  I have heard though, after about 15 or so years, they give up the ghost and become more indoor sofa pests. 

[Doris_Pinks]

Yes, they do tend to move indoors, and develop a strange "ethereal" appearance. 
But then they begin to attack your computer, and are hard to get off it. Have found reasoning with them does no good at all, maybe if they were not so huge, a swift kick up the backside would work. Funnily enough mentioning the word revision seems to have an odd dissapearing effect.
The best time to get them at this stage is I believe at about 11am in the morning, when you can find thier nests, and flush them out by either running the vacuum cleaner around the nest area, and sucking up all the left over food remains, or by cooking bacon which seems to strangly attract them downstairs.

[moonbells]

I have to restart this thread a bit - as I've got a weird leek which has gone totally yellow-leaved in the past couple of months (from the inside out) and I pulled it today and it came straight out the ground, leaving half the roots behind. Looks a bit slimy.

First thought after having been following this thread - oh h*ll.

Second thought - go online, then read pest books. They all say the leaves go yellow when leeks get white rot - but from the outside in!

I went back at a fast rate of knots and dug out a cubic foot of soil into a carrier bag. (HDRA suggests 4" around the roots, which for something planted deeply is a pain).  I followed the remaining buried roots outwards until I couldn't find any more.

I now have a carrierbag of soil, a leek and a trowel all ready to make a visit to the  dump's landfill containers (and they'll be double wrapped by then, in case they reuse the container for green waste).  Though I'm going to rescue and scrub the trowel first, and I'm tempted to rescue the leek, bag it and send to Wisley.

I can't say I've washed the soil off the remaining roots to see if there's any fungus - not sure if it's that obvious. There's only a couple of photos about, and they're onions anyway.

What to do... Tim? Anyone had pale yellow leeks in the past?

moonbells

[tim]

Not all through - even with the rot.

[moonbells]

Thanks - that's vaguely encouraging (together with the pattern of leaf colour change).

Still glad I hoicked out the soil though, just in case. It was just the one leek in the extreme corner of the bed - none of the neighbours have been affected and the nearest one is the only one that's bolted out of the whole lot so I was leaving it to flower anyway.. perhaps it would be a good test. If it goes too, then...

This year's onions are about as far away from the odd leek as possible, and I pulled it last thing last night so hopefully if it is, then it can be contained.  The only snag is I put the thing down on a piece of carpet after I first pulled it so bang goes some of my weed suppression - that will be going to the dump in a bin liner!

moonbells