Last year we fed our leeks with a liquid manure for high nitrates. Despite spacing them well apart and picking off affected leaves, the damage from rust was extreme.
Leek rust is always worst in wet years, and noth last summer and this saw the heavy rain which spreads the spores.
Consulting an 'expert' at a Northern leek show, we were told to spray with dilute washing up liquid. However, I did notice that this expert's leeks were also badly affected by rust, so it couldn't be that effective!
After reading everything I could lay my hands on, we went for the following experimental policy:
Result? The best leeks we've had in years and very much less rust!
Leek rust is always worst in wet years, and noth last summer and this saw the heavy rain which spreads the spores.
Consulting an 'expert' at a Northern leek show, we were told to spray with dilute washing up liquid. However, I did notice that this expert's leeks were also badly affected by rust, so it couldn't be that effective!
After reading everything I could lay my hands on, we went for the following experimental policy:
- Watering, whenever possible, in the morning (NOT the evening) so the leaves dried off and didn't sit damp.
- No high-nitrate fertiliser, just balanced poultry manure when planting.
- Regular feeding with seaweed extract (Maxicrop, available from the Trading Store) with a sprinkler so it coated the leaves as well as soaking the roots.
Result? The best leeks we've had in years and very much less rust!
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