Friday 2 March 2012

SBDS

I think this year may be the least successful year for some time in respect of my Purple Sprouting Broccoli.
 :-(

SBDS stands for "Sudden Brassica Death Syndrome" (well, I say it does...). This is what has happened:


I have no idea what caused this. The plant just collapsed, more or less overnight. I suspect that some horrible creature has gnawed through its roots.

Last Summer, when the plants were young and newly planted-out, most of them were attacked by the Cabbage Root Fly and several barely survived. These ones have never grown to the normal size, despite the relatively mild Winter. This is one of them:


This next photo is of one of the spares, which I planted-out very much later than I would have liked, in the big tub which had housed my "Maskotka" cherry tomatoes during the Summer. It looks very healthy, just not very big:


Only two of my six plants (the ones unaffected by the Cabbage Root Fly) have grown to the normal size for this vegetable (which is about four feet tall). This is the best plant of the six in my raised bed:


The other big one decided to produce its first shoots in November, about 3 months earlier than expected. However, it is still alive and is still producing a few spears every now and then.


Normally, at about this time I would be eagerly anticipating an ample (perhaps bountiful?) crop of one of my favourite veg, but this year there will definitely not be a glut. I am determined to do better next year, and I shall be sending off for some of those packs of "Grow Your Own" nematodes to coincide with when my next batch of PSB is due to be planted out.

14 comments:

  1. gosh, sounds positively medieval!

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  2. Hope you do better next year. Let's hope the nematodes do their job.

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  3. Interesting. I have no advice. I have never grown these.

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  4. I've never grown them either. I have had my brassicas just wilt and die before, but during the spring or summer (same insect you mentioned). I hope Next year works better for you.

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  5. Sorry to hear that Mark. I gave up growing any cabbages: don't have room for it and always something eats it before me...

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  6. Sorry that the broccoli crop hasn't been great - yours grows very upright compared with mine. Do you always stake them?

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  7. It does look like the roots have been attached - have you dug it up to have a look?

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  8. Oh dear I see what you mean - mine, too, looked wonderful up until a couple of weeks ago, then they went downhill rapidly - what's going on!

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  9. What forensic evidence for the SBDS have you found?

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  10. Your poor plant in the top photos, a real bummer. The ups and downs of gardening huh!

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  11. Sue/David: I haven't dug up the afflicted PSB plant - mainly because I have been busy with other tasks. Maybe I'll conduct a Post Mortem examination tomorrow...

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  12. I'm so sorry to see your dead plant.

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