Liming and clubroot control in brassicas- handout for 2013 Veg Field Day
Clubroot is becoming an increasing problem on Willamette Valley vegetable farms. Most cultivated brassica crops (broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, etc.) are highly susceptible to the disease, which is caused by the soilborne fungus Plasmodiophora brassicae. In severe cases it can cause significant crop losses, and heavily infested fields may be taken out of production. Once a field is infected, eliminating the pathogen is difficult if not impossible because its thick walled resting spores have been shown to remain viable in soil for up to 18 years. As a result, once pathogen populations have developed to economically damaging levels, the goal of the farmer is to manage rather than eradicate the disease. One effective control strategy is to raise the soil pH to ≥7.2 through liming.
