Five of my broccoli plants have suddenly died back. Thought it must be slug or insect damage. I have dug them up. No sign of slugs, no sign of leather jackets or root flies or similar. Roots seems to be shrivelled and mouldy.
The rest of the batch are so far doing fine
Can anyone suggest a cause please?
I had exactly the same and had to get rid of 5 plants. I put strong plants out and under net also with cabbage collars. The wind blew them this way and that and they survived and then they wilted all of a sudden. They pulled out of the soil easily and the roots were gone but absolutely no sign at all of cabbage root fly. Wierd
Do you think it could be cut worms? I've had the same problem before and put it down to those. They tend to go along the row from plant to plant so if the losses are adjacent to one another then I would suggest cut worms a strong candidate.
Wind rock can also weaken stems at soil level which can sometimes be exacerbated by the collars rubbing against the not fully hardened stems.
Brassica growing certainly gives of the many growing challenges but ultimately some of the greatest rewards.
Which is why we keep trying! :happy7:
It's happened to me with various plants on the plot, sunflowers, cabbages, pak choi, parsnips ...
... and every time it was voles on my plot. If you dig down where the root should be it is loose and hollow and you can prod around and find the vole tunnels where they live their subterranean life picking off my plants at will.
I haven't got a solution, but they don't take enough to make it a crusade ... yet!
I wonder if it's the same cause on your plot Digeroo?
I think its wind damage. they have just been rocked of their roots.
Brasic need to be firm in the ground more so brocoli and cauli,s. I put mine in as deep as possible so the growing tip is just above ground and then firmed down with my foot. I then water them and shove some more soil arround the stem and firm down again.
I would not expect wind damage, they were all covered in ikea net curtains and oddly enough they are the ones away from the wind which have gone.
I was not aware of voles nibbling the roots of brassicas, but this is a possibility. Our site is full of voles. We used to have a kestrel who sat on the bean poles and picked them off. But we now have a red kite. It seems to go for the pigeons but does not go for voles. There did not seem to be teeth marks. The roots remains were whole but blackened and mouldy. I dug the whole patch over very carefully and there were not signs of any insects. I have not seen cutworms but occasionally find a chafer grub but they usually only nibble one plant and do not move enough to get at five. But there was no sign of those either.
There were no collars to do any rubbing. Most of the plants were boughten ones in individual modules, and they were very healthy and strong when they went out. The surviving ones are looking great.
I have googled fungal infections of brassica roots and all I found was club root. Certainly no sign of swelling in the root.
I was wondering whether I should replace them, but I think it might be better to plant something else instead. I think it might be some kind of damping off. Maybe I simply overwatered them.
ahh, could be cutworms. The diatomaceous earth did have a good effect and I haven`t lost any more since, even the new ones that went in
http://www.bbc.co.uk/gardening/advice/pests_and_diseases/identifier.shtml?cutworms
Oh I think it was cutworms, I put a new one in today and removed one that had deteriorated but which I left, just in case. There was a juicy looking creature that I barely glanced at but looking at the picture, I am pretty sure it was a cutworm. Drat, I should have dealt with it, I did use diatomaceous in the new planting area, so fingers crossed.
It sounds like leather jackets to me, you might not find them as once they have fed on the roots they move on.