Allotments 4 All

Looking so good above ground but, if this is what it's like now, it's not going to go through the winter! ^£"$&^(*&*((*  = Tim

Oh dear! That looks awfully like slug damage followed by bacterial damage.  Try earthing up tightly with moist peat next time around tim

Thanks, Hugh - slugs,yes! Do they dislike peat?

They were well paper-wrapped, but that has all gone. = Tim

Slugs absolutely love wet paper, but they don`t like peat as much.

When I first saw damage like this on lettuce I too thought that slugs were involved. When I started seeing summer lettuce from the deserts of California with similar damage I started doing some research (asked my local Hort advisor!). Slugs are not necessary, damage like this being due entirely to Anthracnose species of bacteria. If you have ever seen pits in lettuce mid-ribs with brown edges then you have seen it before. Earthing up will promote it's growth.

I have - too often! = Tim

John, Hugh - coming back to the anthracnose, is there any way of preventing it in future?

It's the first time I've grown trench celery & I find it a bit off-putting.

However - in case it's all going to rot, I've been lifting it as needed & find that, although 'a good frost' may work wonders, & although it's not fully grown, it's saving us a lot of money. Stringy (easily removed) & 'earthy' - but very palatable. And since there are 50 there, why wait?? = Tim

I`m afraid that I`m rather at `outs` with John on this. My inclination is still towards initial slug damage followed by bacterial infection, in which case the immediate remedy is to prevent/exclude slugs.  If it were anthracnose (literally meaning black coal) I would think the damage would be much darker in colour.

However, if the damage is truly anthracnose, without the intervention of slugs, then I would suggest that rather than bacterial, the cause is fungal - probably one of the many complexes of either Colletrotrichum or Glomerella, which are responsible for anthracnose damage in almost every variety of crop from tomato fruit rot to black pitting of bananas and from runner beans to Willow trees.
Treatment in annual crops is not generally an option (there isn`t really any practical cure)  The sorts of fungicides that will treat black spot on roses may be effective, but you wouldn`t want them on anything you are going to eat.
These fungi are generally far more active in wet seasons.

Sorry tim, can`t be any more help.

Willows - yes. We lost our lovely weeper to that. = Tim