Club Root - One Solution

For anyone trying to cope with Club Root here's something that might well work for you.

My garden developed club root many years ago and I think it came in on plants I bought from a nursery. I managed to keep it fairly well under control by using club root dip and in most years produced pretty reasonable and often very good crops of brassicas.
Club root control chemical treatment was removed from the market a few years ago so I tried to find alternative methods of controlling the disease. I tried growing the seedlings as long as possible in pots before transplanting and also applied very carefully measured (according the existing soil PH) quantities of lime to the brassica bed. These strategies worked to a limited extent but not nearly as well as the chemical treatment I’d employed in the past.

Last year was a complete disaster. By late June all my brassicas were just about dead and only three spindly sprout plants survived long enough to provide a couple of pickings of ‘marbles’ at Christmas.

This year I changed tactics slightly and the results are very promising. Here’s what I did.

I transplanted from seed trays into deep ‘root trainers’ and grew on for as long as I could. When I planted out I dug holes about 9” wide by 5” or 6” deep and filled them with decent quality multi-purpose compost into which I planted the brassicas. I then made a solution, or more accurately a suspension, of 1 lb lime in 2 gallons of water and applied it at a rate of about one gallon per four plants.
As I’ve said the results are looking very promising, all the plants are looking very healthy indeed and are as good as I’ve seen at this time of year for many years.
I should add that due to earlier than usual summer holidays this year, I would have preferred to wait another couple of weeks before planting but it doesn’t seem to have made much difference.

This photo was taken last week. It doesn't show the size of the plants very well, but compared with last years crop these are giants!
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Hi Dave, some good info there. I guess it's all about giving them the best start you can before they get in contact with the Club Root. I have noticed one or two Club Root resistant varieties of cabbage, dunno if they're any good though. Anyone tried them ?
Cheers...freddy.

 

Well, the method of control of club root I outlined above seems to have worked very well.
We picked our first sprouts two weeks ago and also had four lovely cauliflowers earlier in the year and the red cabbages, which will keep well in the ground over winter, are big and very solid.
I took the netting off yesterday in order to insert some support stakes and noticed that though the sprouts do have very evident signs of club root, the onset has been significantly delayed and the plants are as big or better than I've ever grown and the tallest plants are now a bit above 4 feet tall.
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They look good.

Just for info : I read on another forum someone who had had sucess with club root resistance Cauliflower variety "Clapton" and "Winter Pilgrim" (they used grow-big-plants-in-pots, compost-in-planting-holes and lime-in-the-hole techniques too)

 

I tried "Kilaxy" earlier this year. A decent, if not outstanding ball headed summer cabbage and supposed to be clubroot resistant.

 

Dave

For sprouts suffering from clubroot, they look magnificent!

Well done.

 

Yes I'm very pleased with them Flinty. The cauliflower I grew had no sign of CR when I lifted them, but they'd been in the ground for a much shorter time.
I must remember to take some photos of the roots on the sprouts when I finally lift them. I think they'll look pretty horrible!