Simple steps can help prevent white rot from killing your crop. Vegetables will not get sick during the growing season and storage. White rot is caused by a fungus that can infect many plant species. Under suitable conditions for itself, it can cause significant damage to plantings: carrots, cabbage, turnips, beets, onions and garlic, sunflowers, tomatoes; green and other crops.
How does white rot appear on various plants?
To understand that this disease has really appeared on your plantings, you need to know how it looks on various plants. If cabbage grows on heavy loamy soils, then there is a high probability of this disease appearing on it. In this case, its lower leaves and root collar are mainly affected. Plant tissues on which white rot has settled becomes watery and discolored. The mycelium spreads in the form of a white bloom, similar to damp cotton wool.
Especially white rot is fierce in cold rainy weather. Having settled on one plant, under suitable conditions, the fungus quickly infects neighboring heads of cabbage. The disease can appear not only during the growing season, but also during storage, especially if there is poor ventilation and high humidity in the basement, cellar.
How white rot manifests itself on pumpkin seeds, the photos demonstrate eloquently. In this case, the tissues of the stems, leaves, fruits are covered with a white bloom and rot. Then the disease progresses to the next stage, then white neoplasms turn black, they overwinter on uncleared plant debris and the next year can damage new crops planted in this place. Since the fungus loves high humidity, for the most part it progresses in greenhouses, where there is poor ventilation.
High humidity in the greenhouse is the main reason for the spread of white rot on tomatoes. Low air temperature also contributes to this. To recognize the disease, it is enough to look at the tops of the plants, if they have withered, then this should alert the gardener. Other signs of the appearance of white rot are rotting of the lower part of the stems, their softening. Sometimes a white bloom appears here too.
This disease can also affect garlic and onions. If this happens during the growing season, then the leaves of the plant turn yellow prematurely, starting from the top, and then die off. The fungus penetrates the roots and covers them with a fluffy white mycelium. Due to the detrimental effect of the disease, the cloves of garlic, the bulbs become watery and rot. If you do not disinfect the storage, after planting a new crop there, it can be affected by the fungus left over from last year.
From root crops, white rot likes to settle on carrots, celery, parsley. In this case, a white mycelium forms on the surface of root crops, and subsequently black sclerotia of the fungus appear on it. This tends to soften the tissue, and as a result, the vegetables completely rot.
The mycelium on beans and peas like to settle on the surface of the pods, penetrate into them and infect, gradually turning into sclerotia of a black fungus.
Prevention of white rot
It consists in cleaning plant residues, airing greenhouses. If there is no high humidity, then the risk of developing the disease will decrease significantly. Sometimes indoor plants can also be affected by this scourge, as spores are transmitted downwind. Therefore, if rainy weather, high humidity is established, then it is better to bring flower pots indoors if they are on an open veranda, balcony, in the garden. Before planting a houseplant in a pot, it is better to heat the soil in an oven or microwave. In order for the plants to resist the fungus, you need to periodically spray them with a nutrient solution. To do this, dilute in 5 liters of water:
- 5 grams of urea;
- 1 gram of copper sulfate;
- 0.5 grams of zinc sulfate.
If you notice that a part of the plant has just begun to be attacked by the fungus, sprinkle it with crushed coal. You can prepare a paste by adding a little potassium permanganate to the chalk, you need to add water so that, when stirring, you get a mass similar in consistency to liquid cottage cheese. It is also applied to parts of the plant attacked by the fungus. If the disease has spread strongly, then it is advisable to cut out the diseased area, and then sprinkle the sections with chalk or this suspension.
Treatment of white rot on cucumbers
If you notice the first signs of illness in the greenhouse, stop watering and feeding the plants for a week to reduce the humidity in the air. Then you need to dilute in 5 liters of water 10 g of the drug "Oxyhom" or 1 ampoule of the drug "Topaz" in 10 liters of water and spray the cucumber lashes.
After that, you need to ventilate the greenhouse. It is better to carry out such processing early in the morning so that the air temperature does not drop below + 20 ° C during the day, and + 18 ° C at night. If the temperature drops below this mark at night, then the lashes need additional cover with non-woven material or film. A week later, the treatment with the drug "Topaz" is repeated.
If you prefer folk remedies, then spray the plants with whey or prepare a solution consisting of:
- 3.5 liters of water;
- 1.5 liters of whey;
- 0.5 tsp copper sulfate.
When you harvest the last crop, spill the garden bed with a solution made from 5 liters of water and 25 g of copper sulfate. You can spill the soil without removing the plants, and after a day, pull them out directly from the roots and burn them.
Resistant cucumber hybrids can withstand this disease. Where you plan to grow pumpkin seeds, do not plant celery and parsley 3 years earlier, which often has white rot.
Treatment of the disease on root crops
In order to prevent root crops (carrots, potatoes, beets, turnips, celery, radishes) from being damaged by white rot, it is necessary to observe crop rotation, use only healthy mother plants for planting. And if you sow plants with seeds, then you need to first disinfect them in water at + 45 ° C for 5 minutes, and then lower them in cool for 2 minutes.
Root crops should be stored in a cool place at + 3 ° C and the air humidity should be monitored, it should be no higher than 85%. To prevent white rot on garlic and onions, use only healthy planting material. Remove the bulbs when they are fully ripe. Then dry them well. After that, cut off the roots, leaving 3-5 mm and dried feathers, leaving a neck 5–7 cm long. Store onions and garlic at + 1– + 5 ° С, relative humidity 80 percent or less.
You will learn more about how to cure cucumbers from white rot from this video:
