Pacific Pests, Pathogens, Weeds & Pesticides - Online edition

Pacific Pests, Pathogens, Weeds & Pesticides

Cabbage club root (283)

Click/tap on images to enlarge

Photo 1. Cabbage plants wilting from infection by club root, Plasmodiophora brassicae.

Photo 2. Leaves yellow, wilt and rot due to club root, Plasmodiophora brassicae.

Photo 3. Galls on the roots typical of infection by club root, Plasmodiophora brassicae. Not the last of fine roots.

Summary

  • Worldwide distribution. In tropics, sub-tropics and temperate countries. On Chinese cabbage, cabbage and broccoli.  An important disease.
  • Single celled animal, not a fungus or a bacterium.
  • Spores in soil swim to roots, infect, galls form (club root symptom). Root damage causes leaves to wilt. Thick-walled spores form that last >10 years.
  • Spreads in soil water, soil on machinery, shoes, trade in plants.
  • Cultural control: certified plants; nursery hygiene: clean trays, pasteurise soil or soilless mixes; drainage; apply lime (worse in acid soils); weed; remove soil from shoes, machinery; collect and burn debris; 3-year (or more) crop rotation; resistant varieties.
  • Chemical control: none recommended.

Common Name

Club root

Scientific Name

Plasmodiophora brassicae. It is not a fungus; it is in a separate kingdom called Protista, and is in a group known as rhizaria. There are many club root strains.

AUTHOR Grahame Jackson 
Information from Diseases of vegetable crops in Australia (2010). Editors, Denis Persley, et al. CSIRO Publishing; and CABI (2019) Plasmodiophora brassicae (club root). Crop Protection Compendium. (https://www.cabi.org/cpc/datasheet/41865); and Lancaster R (2018) Managing clubroot in vegetable brassica crops. Agriculture and Food. Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development. (https://www.agric.wa.gov.au/broccoli/managing-clubroot-vegetable-brassica-crops). and from Grabowski MA (undated) Department of Plant Pathology. NC State University. (https://projects.ncsu.edu/cals/course/pp728/Plasmodiophora/Plasmodiophora.html). Photos 1&3 Gerald Holmes, California Polytechnic State University at San Luis Obispo, Bugwood.org.

Produced with support from the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research under project PC/2010/090: Strengthening integrated crop management research in the Pacific Islands in support of sustainable intensification of high-value crop production, implemented by the University of Queensland and the Secretariat of the Pacific Community.

Copyright © 2023. All rights reserved.
Web edition hosted at https://apps.lucidcentral.org/pppw