Rutabagas

This handout summarizes the results from clubroot resistant brassica (cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, Napa cabbage, etc) variety trials conducted in 2015-16 on farms in the Willamette Valley of Oregon as well as in greenhouse screening trials.

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.

Report to the Oregon Processed Vegetable Commission

Amy Dreves
OSU Dept. of Crop and Soil Science

Robert McReynolds
NWREC

Dan McGrath
OSU Dept. of Hort

Ed Peachey
OSU Dept. of Hort

Objectives:

Brassica napus (Napobrassica group) and Brassica rapa (Rapifera Group)

Last revised February 15, 2010

Turnips with high Potassium (left) and low Potassium (right). Photo credit: Bill Mansour, Oregon State University

VARIETIES (approximately 60-80 days).

Rutabaga