Something lurking in the soil

We get a great deal of pleasure from growing some of our own vegetables; the taste is superior, and we know exactly how everything has been grown.  Our veggies are looked after to the best of our ability to produce a healthy crop but we have learned that you can't factor in the unknown.

This was our onion bed:

All looks fine, but on closer inspection:

For comparison, on the left is an unaffected onion (lots of healthy root growth) and on the right is one with rot 

The salvaged crop on the drying racks (aka spare greenhouse staging)

We have a problem.  We seem to have onion white rot lurking in the soil.  A quick investigation online and we realise the extent of the problem.  There is no cure and infected plants need to be destroyed.  It's nothing to do with poor husbandry, apparently the spores of this particular fungus can survive in the soil for many years.  We dug the whole bed up and salvaged what we could, about half the bulbs.  In the grand scheme of things it's just a small blip, an annoyance really, more than anything, but it did make us think that we have been fortunate not to have had a crop affected in this way before, and even more so that our livelihoods are not dependent on crop success.  Thankfully this particular rot only affects onions so we can use the bed for other veggies - indeed, it has already been dug over ready to provide a new home for some courgettes and squashes.   We have disinfected the tools that were used and are keeping our fingers crossed that the spores have not contaminated the garlic bed next to the onions; obviously also being part of the allium family, the rot is partial to garlic, too.  Now we would be a bit more upset if that happened :(.

The first spud crop!

On a brighter note, the spinach has been a huge success.  I cropped it yet again (I think that's 4 pickings in total) and blanched and froze portions.  Those plants have now come up to allow the second-sowing seeding a bit more room to grow on.  And we emptied the first of our bags of spuds, too - small new potatoes that were just delicious with last night's dinner.  So, we take the good with the not quite so good, learning as we go, and being grateful for the opportunity to grow a little of what we eat.