Rust on Leeks
Marygold
Posts: 326
in Fruit & veg
I have some leeks which I was hoping to keep for harvesting over winter. However, it looks like there is a little rust on some of them. Will they keep over winter or should I harvest them now?
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In my experience rust is not a killer, just leave them be. I like to eat the greens, but I discard any with rust, you don't know what toxins might be in it. As far as I know rust is a superficial fungal infection which does not kill the plant, but presumably does slow growth somewhat. I get lots on spring onions if I let them get big.
Thanks for that LeifUK. It's not very much at the moment so I will leave them be, perhaps just cutting off any badly affected leaves.
Make sure you use them all and dispose of any foliage before you sow any leek seeds next year as this particular rust can only survive on living tissue so you don't want to give it any chance of infecting your next crop Marygold.