[Baldy]

Hi all,

A chum on the plot has lost all his swedes - he's an 'old boy' with many years of experience under his belt but has never come across this  before. On casual inspection the swedes look ok - he discovered one was not right when he went to pull it up - put both hands on it to give it a tug and his hand went right through it... completely rotten. I've vaguely heard of soft rot having an impact on swedes - but I don't grow them myself so don't really know what might hit them...

Pip pip,
Balders

[Baldy]

Just realised its maybe not too clear - but the first image is an 'exploded' view of the rotten-ness that was once a swede - the second image is of the next swede - its got a bit of slug? damage but otherwise looks ok (but its definitely not ok.

Pip pip,
Balders

[New shoot]

It does look like an advanced case of soft rot Balders.  Poorly drained soil or excessive amounts of nitrogen are often blamed, but it sounds like your friend has many years of experience and would have prepared the soil well.  Maybe the very warm wet autumn weather played a part this year ? 

The plants will need to be binned as the composting process cannot be relied on to destroy the bacteria that cause the rot.  The soil may now be contaminated as well, so your friend will have to be careful what he plants there next year and also not to spread the rot round the plot 

[ryetek]

We have had a few swedes exactly like that this year but fortunately only six or seven so far. Most of them are just fine. We have two varieties Helenor and Tweed and we have had rotten swedes from each variety. 

I'm not too sure what's caused this but we usually grow swedes well.  We have done nothing different as compared to other years as far as I know. I must say the rotten swedes really do stink awfully bad.

We always rotatate crops so no brassicas will be grown on this soil for at least 3 years now but it's a good point New shoot.

[upert]

I had a few rot after they split. I think it was my fault for not watering them nice and evenly when it was dry. Some split and the rot got in.