Topic: How to deal with Leek Rust

[George the Pigman]

This year for the first time I have rust on my leeks. Shame too as the leeks are fantastic this year but the recent mild and wet conditions seem to have led to a perfect breeding ground for the fungus.
The question is what to do about it - if anything?
Looking at the web advice varies from pulling the whole plant up and burning it to taking off the affected leaves or to doing nothing as the plants will recover. To date the rust only mainly seems to be towards the top of the outer leaves.

Any advice or opinions?

[Paulh]

Particularly if it has only recently started to affect the plants, just cut off the affected leaves and burn / bin those. The rest of the plant will be fine.

When (if) watering, water the soil, not the plants.

[Beersmith]

Day lengths are shortening.  We are already well past the equinox.  We have had a mild autumn so far but temperatures are gradually falling too.  This is a period of the year when they will put on very little further growth anyway.  Of course leeks will stand well even though harsh winter weather but isn't the main objective to keep them from deteriorating so you can harvest them between now and late winter.

I would be tempted to remove the worst affected leaves but otherwise not much else. I've started using mine already.  Use badly affected ones first.

[JanG]

I agree that it’s been a really good year for leeks. We’ve had some very fat and sweet early leeks (mainly Zermatt) and they’ve been the mainstay of our meals for probably the last month.
I nearly always get some rust. I just ignore it. So far it has only affected the outer, greener leaves which get trimmed off before cooking anyway.

[gray1720]

I've always had leek rust, and just let it get on with it - it only affects the upper and outer flags, so of no real consequence to the bit you eat.