Like many other vegetable crops, cabbage is often affected by rot. It is especially unpleasant to discover the disease at the very end of the season, when it is time to harvest. What to do if trouble comes to your garden?
Cabbage is one of the most popular garden crops. Many summer residents even grow cabbage varieties of different ripening periods on their plots. Early ones - in order to use it for cooking in the summer, late ones - to lay the heads of cabbage for storage in the autumn. Most often, it is the latter that fall victim to rot. First, let's outline the circle of “suspects” that most often cause cabbage rot.
White rot of cabbage (sclerotinia)
Signs of white rot in cabbage . At the end of the growing season of the crop, a cotton-like white coating begins to develop on the outer leaves. The leaf veins darken, and in some places round or oblong sclerotia up to 1 cm in diameter are formed.
Maliciousness . Most often, overripe, frostbitten and injured heads of cabbage become infected with white rot. The pathogen spreads very quickly - if the recommendations for crop care are not followed, the disease can completely destroy the crop. Often the pathogen does not manifest itself in any way in the garden, but very quickly makes itself felt during storage. White rot also affects corn, carrots, beets, tomatoes, beans and some other crops.
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How to deal with blackening of leaves
Knowing why cabbage leaves turn black inside the head of cabbage, you can choose the most appropriate method of prevention or method of dealing with a particular problem.
If the problem is a disease, then only proper prevention can cope with it, even before planting vegetables.
It is important to spray the plants with preparations that contain copper, as well as feed them. Various growth stimulants can also help, for example, a drug such as Novosil.
If the problem is improper storage of vegetables, then there are a number of methods that will help increase the shelf life of cabbage. So, the normal temperature for it is 1-5 degrees. Modern refrigerators have special areas designed for vegetables. Otherwise, you need to select the bottom shelf and set the lowest temperature. By the way, not all heads of cabbage can be stored. For these purposes, the vegetable should not have any mechanical damage, the leaves on top should fit tightly to the head of cabbage, and its structure should be dense, without cracks, and healthy in appearance. The heads of cabbage are well dried.
You can store products in a plastic or paper bag, as well as in cling film. There should be no air between the film and the vegetable. So cabbage can be stored for up to 1 month. Cabbage can also be frozen and dried.
Shredded vegetables can be stored for a long time in a plastic bag or in special food containers. This way you will definitely avoid its damage.
Gray rot of cabbage
Signs of gray rot of cabbage . Unlike sclerotinia, gray rot of cabbage usually appears already during storage of heads of cabbage. However, in conditions of high humidity, this disease can develop towards the end of the growing season. In the first stages of the disease, brown spots appear on the outer leaves of cabbage, which eventually become necrotic and become covered with an ash-gray coating. Typically, the pathogen enters the plant through cracks, which are especially common in overripe heads of cabbage.
Maliciousness . Gray rot of cabbage is also dangerous because very often this disease contributes to the development of another, no less dangerous disease - mucous bacteriosis. If storage rules are not followed, gray rot can cause the death of the entire crop. In addition to cabbage, the fungus Botryotinia fuckeliana (the causative agent of the disease) also affects tomatoes, cucumbers, sunflowers, carrots, grapes, strawberries and many other crops.
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Nitrogen
The specified element is not allowed in large quantities or in too small quantities. In the first case, it is necessary to feed the plants with phosphorus-potassium compounds. Excess nitrogen is indicated by white spots and cinnamon dots on the leaves, which curl at the edges and subsequently fall off.
Nitrogen deficiency is indicated by the pale color of the leaves, the appearance of an early yellowish tint and the small size of the fruits. The leaves die, the fruits fall off. The stems of cucumbers and tomatoes become thin and tough. Onion feathers grow more slowly than usual and are initially light green and then brownish-gray in color.
To eliminate the deficiency of the element, you should feed the plant with urea and ammonium sulfate in proportions of 15 and, respectively, 10 g. per 1 sq.m. Another way is to resort to the usual use of manure grounds (1:6 or 1:10).
Mucous bacteriosis, or wet bacterial rot of cabbage
Signs of mucous bacteriosis of cabbage . The causative agents of the disease, bacteria Erwinia carotovora and Erwinia aroideae Holland, infect cabbage heads in the second half of the growing season, “giving preference” to cabbage of early, mid-early and mid-season varieties. Warm and humid weather almost always favors the development of the disease.
The head of cabbage affected by the pathogen softens and acquires a creamy-gray tint. The process of decomposition of the tissues of an infected vegetable is accompanied by a characteristic putrefactive odor. Bacteria enter the head of cabbage through cracks in the leaves or through the stalk directly from the soil. Cases of pathogen transmission by cabbage flies, bugs and other pests of this crop have been recorded.
Maliciousness . The main difference between mucous bacteriosis and other diseases that cause rotting vegetables is that often its pathogen enters the head of cabbage through small cracks in the outer leaves of cabbage and begins to destroy the head of cabbage from the inside, while on the outside the fruit will appear completely healthy. As a result, the diseased vegetable is sent for storage and becomes a source of infection for other heads of cabbage.
Recommendations and tips
In addition to preventive treatments, following simple rules will help you avoid encountering mucous bacteriosis in your area:
- choose cabbage varieties that are most resistant to diseases. Cabbage varieties that are completely immune to mucous bacteriosis have not yet been developed. But by choosing a variety that is resistant to most fungal diseases, the risk of infection is reduced.
- treat seeds before planting. Seeds treated before planting produce strong seedlings, which produce plants with a stronger immune system. For processing, you can use ready-made products, such as Epin. Two drops of the substance are diluted in 100 ml of water. The seeds are immersed in the resulting solution for 5 hours. One of the effective folk remedies is to soak the seeds for a day in the juice of an aloe flower, diluted in half with water.
- disinfect the soil. To destroy pathogens living in the soil, the soil can be spilled with copper sulfate. For ten liters of water, one tablespoon of the substance is enough. Before processing, the soil must be loosened. Disinfection is carried out in the spring 2-3 weeks before planting cabbage and in the fall after harvesting.
- Monitor the acidity of the soil. In addition to the fact that cabbage simply does not like soils with high acidity, an acidic environment is an ideal place for bacteria to multiply. Therefore, it is necessary to monitor the pH of the soil and deoxidize the soil if necessary. Baking soda works great for this problem. It can be applied immediately before planting cabbage in dry or diluted form.
- apply crop rotation rules. The basis of crop rotation is the rule not to plant the same crop two years in a row in the same place. It is best to alternate different groups of crops annually. The ideal precursors for cabbage are: potatoes, tomatoes, garlic, and onions.
- follow the planting pattern. The cabbage planting scheme must strictly comply with the recommendations of the variety's originator. In no case should you save space and plant plants often. Thickened placement leads to poor air circulation and accumulation of water on the leaves, and this contributes to the spread of bacteriosis.
- do not violate the storage regime for vegetables. A month before storing cabbage, it is necessary to disinfect the cellar or basement. To do this, you can use ready-made products or dilute a concentrated solution of potassium permanganate. All surfaces should be treated with antiseptic solutions. The air temperature in the vegetable storage should be maintained at 3-4 degrees Celsius. Heads of cabbage can be laid out on racks or hung by stalks. In this case, there must be sufficient distance between them so that air can circulate freely.
Advice!
In order for cabbage to be stored better on the day of cutting, it is left to lie in the fresh air for 8-9 hours.
What to do if cabbage is affected by rot
If you find a rotting head of cabbage in the garden bed, immediately dig up the entire plant. Remove and discard any diseased leaves, as well as a few more healthy leaves located immediately below the damaged ones.
Experts differ on whether it is possible to eat leftover cabbage leaves if they are free of spots and any other signs of rot. However, the majority believes that if the head of cabbage is slightly damaged, it can still be eaten. True, before this it is advisable to subject the vegetable to heat treatment, for example, to thoroughly stew it.
Carefully inspect neighboring plantings. No matter how sorry it may be, dig up by the roots all the plants that have even the slightest signs of disease. It is better to lose a conditional 20% of the harvest than to be left without it altogether due to the fact that the affected heads of cabbage have infected the rest of the plantings.
Spray the soil at the site of the removed plant, as well as around its neighbors, with a biofungicide, for example Fitosporin, Sporobacterin or Binoram.
As soon as the daytime temperature drops to 3-8°C, and the night temperature to almost 0°C, you can safely begin harvesting the heads of cabbage and preparing the crop for storage.
Magnesium
A large amount of magnesium leads to the appearance of stripes and yellow spots on the lower leaves, protruding tissues, and stretching of the tips. Young leaves die. A deficiency of the element contributes to yellowing and redness of the areas between the veins, while the rest of the surface of the leaves remains green, which forms the so-called herringbone color.
The lower leaves of potatoes, cauliflower, cucumbers and legumes become diseased, which in the first case is especially noticeable when planted on light acidic soils, significant potassium fertilization and high levels of precipitation.
To replenish the required amount of magnesium, it is recommended to fertilize the plant with ash in an amount of 30 to 60 g. As an alternative, you can also use magnesium sulfate (10 to 15 g), potassium magnesia or potassium mag (10 to 20 g). The proposed proportions of fertilizer should be diluted in 10 liters of water and watered at the rate of 1 sq.m. land plot.
Another option is semi-burnt dolomite, or a combination of the latter with flour or limestone. Used in quantities from 25 to 30 g per 1 sq.m.
Description of the fruit and vegetable crop
Chinese cabbage is a vegetable from the Brassica family, one of the subspecies of turnips. The crop is also called Chinese or lettuce, Chinese lettuce or petsai. When cultivated, it is grown as an annual plant.
The vegetable has the shape of a rosette in the form of a loosened head of cabbage. The shape of the vegetable is cylindrical. Cabbage foxtails are wavy, loose, and have jagged or wavy edges. The color of the product is most often light green. There are also yellow and bright green specimens. The product contains vitamins A, C, B1, B2, B6, PP, which are essential for the human body. The leaves also contain up to 3.5% protein.
