Mysterious veg garden problem

[Odsox]

I have a mysterious and worrying problem in my veg garden.
I planted 7 rows of potatoes and a row of peas across half my garden.
I then planted another row of peas at right angles to the potatoes, with a row of broad beans and some leeks the other side of this pea row.

When the 2nd pea row came up, a third of the row was normal but the other two thirds were stunted and sickly.
Later I noticed that 2 of the potato rows were not as good as their neighbours.
Then the broad beans shed most of their leaves and didn't produce one bean pod at all.
When you stand and look, the problem plants are all in a continuous swathe up the centre of the garden.

That started about April and it's still happening, I had some very healthy parsnips and beetroot next to the broad beans but now they look distinctly sick.
Next to them is a concrete path and on the other side is another row of broad beans which produced a good crop and is mostly picked now.
Last week the centre plants of this bean row shed all their leaves with just the two ends looking still OK.
The other side of these beans are half a dozen red cabbage that now have dead outer leaves.
The other side of those are my sweetcorn plants which at the moment are still looking good, but for how long ?

The swathe of destruction is about 40 feet long and about 8 feet wide and is 'L' shaped down my plot and then across.
After looking at it for 4 months I still have no idea what is causing it.
I have been gardening on this plot successfully for 15 years and I have done nothing new this year, no dodgy manure of compost.
There are no fields nearby that could have herbicide drifting from.
Whatever it is it must be airborn as it crossed a concrete path and very potent as my pea row went from 3' tall plants to 6" plants immediately ... no gradual taper, and it seems to affect everything (except weeds of course).

At the top end of the plot where the problem seems to be coming from is another concrete path and then some small trees and bushes for a windbreak which are buddleia, mimosa, hebes and winter flowering honeysuckle, all of which have been there for many years.
Beyond them is a hedge of blackthorn, hawthorn and fuchsia and beyond that is rough heath with the usual bracken, heather and brambles.

I don't really expect anyone to tell me what's causing it, although that would be nice, but just to get it off my chest and to point out that even after gardening for over 50 years you can still be totally baffled.

[Odsox]

I should have pointed out that on either side of this swathe the plants are/were just fine.
On one side were my early potatoes which were OK and now there are 20 or so Brussel sprouts that are OK, below that are runner beans, leeks and gladioli ... all fine.
On the other side was the original row of peas which provided 6 Kg of shelled peas, 4 rows of onions which are now harvested and 2 rows of maincrop potatoes which are still green and healthy.
Spooky or what ?

[MKG]

Good one, if you see what I mean.

That L-shaped area sounds like it might be key - that sounds too regular to be natural. Do you have any pipes of any kind under there? What was the land use prior to your occupation?

Mike

[prison break fan]

Oddsox, I have the same thing going on with my garden! With me it is the flower beds. (veg are down the allotment) I have a diagonal line of poor dead roses, delphiniums, a philadelphus and masses of phlox. I have racked my poor tired brain, in between nursing poorly plants! I have no explanation. My neighbour thinks it has something to do with being under the flight path of Gatwick, but I'm not convinced. pbf.

[Millymollymandy]

You have either got that elephant that got lost in your grass tunneling under your veg or you have one almighty great big chafer grub or mulot* (that's one of those horrendous burrowing mice which I hate hate HATE ) or something else doing some sort of wierd damage possibly from underneath, chomping at the roots?

Can't imagine how it could be coming from above? That is very very odd.

* Mulot is the French word. These blighters do a lot of damage as they create a network of channels under the surface leaving your plants with their roots just dangling in space, often causing them to collapse or just look sickly, because of course they can't take up water if their roots aren't touching the soil.

[Odsox]

Good one, if you see what I mean.

That L-shaped area sounds like it might be key - that sounds too regular to be natural. Do you have any pipes of any kind under there? What was the land use prior to your occupation?

Mike

When I said 'L' shaped, it's actually a curved 'L' ... more like half a 'U'.
When I bought this place the field was pasture, although I'm told it has had potatoes grown in it but there are no pipes at all, not even land drains.

I first thought it was something in the soil like honey fungus, but as it has jumped the concrete path and if I dig up a dying plant the roots seem unaffected, as was the potato tubers, I am more convinced that it's air born, even though the direction it's spreading from is opposite to the prevailing wind.
Although the way it's taking it's time to get from one end of the patch to the other points to soil born.

This is a picture of my recently affected broad bean row with red cabbage behind just starting to die and (as yet) unaffected sweetcorn.

B.Beans.jpg (127.65 KiB) Viewed 2847 times

And immediately across the path you can see my parsnips about to keel over and in the background the row of beans that never even tried.
On the extreme mid left you can see an Onward pea plant that should still be green and 3' - 4' tall.

Parsnips.jpg (144.34 KiB) Viewed 2850 times

[Annpan]

Could it be somethings tunnel under your patch... a mole? ferret? rabbit? I don't know but if they had gone along nibbling on the roots it would cause that kind of problem above, don't you think?

[Odsox]

Could it be somethings tunnel under your patch... a mole? ferret? rabbit? I don't know but if they had gone along nibbling on the roots it would cause that kind of problem above, don't you think?

No, as I said ... if I dig an affected plant up the roots seem to be OK.

PBF, sorry to hear you have the same problem, but on the other hand I'm pleased that it's not just me.
Can't really see how it could be Gatwick's fault because if it were something from a plane .. fuel or something, I don't think it would be a small sharply defined line, it would be all over your garden, house, road, neighbours, etc.

I hope I either twig what it is, or it goes away before next spring.

[Green Aura]

Plague of locusts? Sorry, I must be feeling a bit biblical today

It does sound like a swarm of something though. Otherwise how would it turn a corner? And jump a path.

[Millymollymandy]

That's really wierd, and everything else outside of this area is fine though? Kind of discounts airborne then really. I just can't imagine what it could be. Anyway perhaps it's time to pull up the parsnips at least if your roots haven't been affected, to try to save them.

[snapdragon]

How awful for you - I have no clue - space aliens??

I'd send the question to Gardeners Question Time - they always have answers (usually three or more)

[Millymollymandy]

Or try the RHS - if you were a member you could probably send them some soil and dying foliage for analysis. I know that when I was a member you could send them plants and leaves to find out what diseases they had. They might be interested anyway.

[Odsox]

How awful for you - I have no clue - space aliens??

I'd send the question to Gardeners Question Time - they always have answers (usually three or more)

Unfortunately I don't think the BBC would be the slightest bit interested in a question from the Republic of Ireland, they are very neurotic about anywhere outside the UK.
You have to be a fully paid up licence holder to qualify.

MMM I'm not a member of the RHS, but it might be a good idea for me to join.

[Peggy Sue]

My thoughts were definitely Mole when I read this, we have endless problems with something looking really healthy then sudden a straight line of sickly plants.

Its worth rooting around in the ground there, if the mole is deep the roots may well look healthy but they are probably suffering from disturbance and lack of water due to the burrow below.

I discover alot of my mole activity standing there watering the poor plant wondering whats up and suddenly the ground gives way a bit and I sink a few inches- have you tried firming them well in with a good watering? If it is a mole either the giving way of the soil will 'give it away' (sorry pun), or re firming them helps them get a grip and back on track.

If it's not a furry underground friend I really can't rhink of anything.

Have you tried the guy who runs the allotment.org website, he's really knowledgable, has written lots of books and I'm pretty sure he won't have any hangups about Ireland, he translated one of his books to Croatian

http://www.allotment.org.uk/ could give it a try as a last resort, he helped me with the contaminated manure thing?

[Odsox]

My thoughts were definitely Mole when I read this

Nope, no moles at all down here in the south west, in fact no mammal pests at all as far as gardening goes, just mink and the very occasional fox.

There is nothing in the soil that looks untoward as I have dug 2 rows of potatoes through the middle of the problem patch and found nothing (other than potatoes)