can any one advise me how to get rid of club root. I have had my lottie for 2 years all going well till my cabbages started to die :(. When i dug them up i found they Had club root.
Shifty
http://www.allotments4all.co.uk/yabbse/index.php/topic,13916.0.html
Thanks Tim. I have had a look at that page. so lime that pach I will.
I have the same problem, so taking the advice of others have;
Limed
Rhubarbed
Sunk end-less bottles into the soil full of compost
Belts, braces et al, expect I'll be hit by caterpillers now...
As well as adding a handful of lime to the planting hole I pre-grow my plants to about a 3" pot size,then transplant.....Alan :)
Hi all, :D
sterilize the compost you use to sow the seeds in with armillatox, when you prick the seedlings out, use sterilized compost again, pot them on into 5 or 6inch pots using, you`ve guessed it , sterilized compost. Then 3 days before you plant them out dib a hole where they are going & pour into this the armillatox solution. A piece of rhubarb in the planting hole & with a bit of luck no club root.
Armillatox is now only sold as a patio cleaner, but it is still has many uses in the garden. Contact www.armillatox.co.uk for info.
Adrian.
You can never get rid of club roo but you can do something to cope with it Firstly lime the ground secondly and I tried it this year, when you transplant any brassica at the bottom of the hole place a piece of Rhubard plant your brassicas on top. I was given this tip by a old feller who had allotment for over 50 years
I did a trail some planted with the piece of rhubard and some with out
The ones planted with out the rhubarb develped club root the other with the rhubard where clean and healthy
Thank you all for your advice, Will have a go at all your ideas
Are there any scientists out there? I'm curious about the use of lime and/or rhubarb to combat the effects of club root.
We are advised to use lime to reduce the acidity of the soil and therefore produce an environment less suited to club root.
And yet, we are also advised to place a piece of rhubarb in the planting hole. An article I read recently listed the 7 types of acid contained in rhubarb hence the need for plenty of sugar when cooking it.
How can both things work against club root?
Oxalic acid produced from the decaying rhubarb masks the smell of the secretions of the brassica roots and deters clubroot spores.
According to the Kitchen Gardener, which I picked up today -
"The first-ever clubroot-resistant cabbage is now available to gardeners - and this dramatic breakthrough in breeding (non-GM) looks set to continue with, hopefully, a cauliflower in 2007 and calebrese and Brussels sprouts the following year."
Dutch bred F1 Kilaxy is the plant
Here's a little extract from a project I once did:
As this site has a history of clubroot disease (Plasmodiophora brassicae), after double digging and before covering, identify and mark the limited area to be limed ready for brassica. Lime once in autumn at a rate of 550/m2 in this area only. Repeat liming in each brassica area every year, and check pH level every 3 years. Research shows that the optimum alkalinity level to help suppress clubroot is at pH7.2 to 7.5. Check out and remove any weed hosts such as hairy bittercress and shepherds purse, also remove any wallflowers.
Don’t sow the brassica seed into a seedbed; instead sow in a seed tray in fresh sterile compost. Prick out into 12cm pots when the plants have 2 or 3 true leaves, burying the stem as deep as you can without the leaves touching the soil. Only ever water from the bottom, and trim off any roots emerging from the bottom of the pot. This will encourage them to form a good, strong fibrous root system.
Grow on in the pots until they have a stem diameter of around 6mm and are around 20cm high. Before planting out onto the site, form a raised bed of soil, and ensure that there is good drainage. Plant out into the raised bed. Before planting out, the roots can be dipped in a treatment containing thiophanate-methyl. (if you use chemicals)
The spores of the disease prefer wet conditions, and can be killed by heat. Lighting your bonfires on the area to be used for brassicas may help, as well as repeated cultivation in warm dry weather. Don’t dispose of brassica waste by composting; burn it, or put it out with the household rubbish.