Oregon and Washington growers are struggling with the Rust fungus Puccinia allii. It has been hard hitting last summer and this summer as well, infecting garlic, onions and leeks for many growers. After seeing severe infections in a small leek observation plot last fall and winter, and serious damage to a garlic crop in the vicinity, we ramped up our trials of leeks and overwinter onions in 2011. Our fall leek trial has some rust infection, not as bad as last year.
Some varieties shown through the rust last fall and winter, and we are seeing the same results this year, but on a larger scale. Here are our fall results, and some suggestions we have heard for reducing the leek infections...
FROM EARLIEST TO LATEST:
We have seen all these varieties with rust, either in our trials or with growers, but the ones with good tolerances are marketable with very little damage, and usually only to dead tissue. We had 18 varieties in our early fall trial, and have 22varieties in our 2011 winter trials (look for another post soon).
Lancia OP: pretty susceptible to rust. (we are no longer carrying this variety)
Rami OP (organic): looks identical to Lancia, also susceptible to rust if over mature. Meant for summer/early fall harvest.
Megaton F1: excellent rust tolerance! For summer/early fall, but holds pretty well.
Easton F1: excellent rust tolerance and the longest shafts. Comes on late summer but is holding very well for us, into late October.
Volta F1: nice long clean shafts, good tolerance of rust in our trials. This is a variety we are considering carrying or keeping in mind as a backup.
There are a few varieties in our winter trial. We seeded these on 4/12/11, and transplanted 6/6/11.
Belton F1: No rust damage. Could be harvested but should also hold. Clean, large, uniform, and tall. With such a long shaft, I wonder if it will handle any sustained cold periods. We will keep harvesting it over the next 2 months.
Kenton F1: for winter harvest, there is no rust on these plants yet.
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