CLUB-ROOT OF SWEDES

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 74, Issue 192, 15 August 1931, Page 20 (Supplement)

CLUB-ROOT OF SWEDES

EXPERIMENTS AT MASSEY COLLEGE, As a result of preliminary work at the Plant Research Station, Palmerston North, an experiment on the control of club root of swedes was laid down on the Massey Agricultural College farm. Tn this experiment Hornings swede was sown in alternate rows with the Crimson King variety of swede on ground which was heavily infected with club root. Various lime treatments, viz., J 2-3 tons per acre and 3 tons per acre of burnt lime, and 3 tons per acre cf carbonate of lime were applied to different portions of the ground, three months before sowing the seed. On each of rhe lime treatments part of the seed was sown with super lime mixture (50 per cent, super and 50 per cent, carbonate of lime, at 6cwt. per acre, and part with basic slag at Scwt. per acre. The results of these experiments are now available and show that the Hernings variety of swedes possesses a remarkable resistance to attacks of clubroot In parts of the field the Crimson King variety has been wiped out by the disease, while the Hornings adjacent to them are flourishing. The value of the lime treatments in ' controlling the disease is disappointing, but indicates that, had the lime been sown earlier, a more satisfactory control would have been obtained. A surprising result was obtained by the application <»f 1 2-3 tons of burnt lime per acre, which at a cost of about £3 13s per acre, increased the yield of Herniiigs swedes by 25 tons per acre above thp yield obtained from th« unlimed block. The results of the yields and infection counts are as follow’:—In the super-lime sown crops the yield of Hornings swedes rose from 13 tons per acre in the unlimed ground to 38 tons per acre in the limed; and the Crimson King from 14 tons per acre in the unlimed to 20 tons per acre in the limed ground. In the slag-sown crops the yield of Hernings was slightly less than in those sow.i with super, but with the Crimson King the yield was slightly increased by the use of slag. In the Hernings swedes only 14 per cent, showed any infection in the unlimed area, and this was reduced to 2.5 per cent, in the limed ground. With the ‘ riinson King swedes sown w r ith slag the percentage of severely club-root infected plants varied from 79 per cent, in the unlimed area to 28 per cent.’in the limed, but in those sewn with the super-lime mixture the infection varied from 78 per cent, to 61 per cent, in the respective plots. Apart from the areas pulled fnr calculating the yield the experiment is still intact and, as before stated, offers a profound demonstration ' of the resistance of Hernings swedes to