Garden News (UK)

My leeks have yellowish dust on the leaves – can we still eat them?

Emily Harding, by email

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Stefan says: Yes, you can. What you have found will have been seen by many other gardeners. It’s the symptoms of a disease called leek rust, which is equally common on related kinds of allium; chives especially are often affected by it, although ornamental alliums seldom are. With chives, of course, the damage is more serious because the leaves are the objects of cultivatio­n. With leeks and bulbing onions, you will generally find the edible part is little affected.

To help minimise the risk in future, try to maintain a decent rotation between onion crops of all kinds so the spores in the soil have the chance to die away; and keep a wide spacing between plants. There is some resistance to the disease and among modern varieties, try ‘Walton Mammoth’, ‘Apollo’, ‘Autumn Poristo’, ‘Splendid’ and the non-hardy summer variety ‘Titan’.

 ?? ?? Leek rust seldom affects the edible part of leeks
Leek rust seldom affects the edible part of leeks

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