Vegetables Go Clubing

Club Root Disease (Plasmodiphora brassicae) is a serious pathogen which infects the roots of vegetables such as cabbage, cauliflower and broccoli.

CAFRE recently delivered a training course demonstrating how testing of soil can be carried out to determine the level of club root.

Cabbage, broccoli, turnip and Brussels sprout growers’ sowed seeds of Chinese Cabbage, a susceptible crop in pots of soil from their own fields to determine club root levels in their fields. The pots of seedlings were grown on at the Horticulture Development Centre, Greenmount Campus for six weeks.

The seedlings all looked very similar in the pots, but when the growers washed away the soil from their roots a quite different picture emerged. Some roots were badly clubbed, while others were perfectly healthy.

Martin McArdle from Loughgall tested the soil of a field which he assumed was free of the disease. With one of the test plants showing a gall, Martin will now take precautions to combat this persistent and damaging fungus such as applying lime.  John Donnan of Comber was pleased to see that soil from a field where a crop had once been lost to club root was showing 100 percent healthy roots. He had put the field down to grass. ‘Cleaning up’ land by this method is effective, but slow. As John pointed out, “We kept the field in grass for 15 years before planting another Brassica crop”.

After examining plants grown in their soil, Richard Cogman of British Sugar give a presentation on the benefits of LimeX, a by-product of sugar refining, which contains a very finely divided form of lime which helps control club root. Demand for the product is increasing in England and the local growers asked whether it would continue to be available here. Richard Cogman realises that in the soil and climate conditions of N.Ireland LimeX is particularly valuable and he said he would ensure that local growers could source LimeX.

If you or a family member would like further information on training programmes for edible crops, contact Anne Stone, Edible Crops Development Adviser, Greenmount Campus on 028 9442 6683 or by email anne.stone@dardni.gov.uk.

Richard Cogman of British Sugar speaks to growers after the club root meeting at Sparky Pak, Comber.

Anne Stone, CAFRE Edible Crops Development Advisor, looks at test plants with Oliver Cushnahan, a Brassica grower and processor from Derryloughin. The three plants on the left show large galls caused by club root while those on the right have healthy roots.