Onion and Garlic Rot

[Barbarah]

Having overwintered garlic and red onions which seemed to be doing reasonably well until May when the tops started to die off. I have looked at them today to find that the garlic bulbs were all rotten and had not developed at all. A similar thing is happening with the red onions. Any ideas what has caused this? Can I prevent it next time?

[bramble]

Where did you have them growing? Were they in containers or out in the open ground?

[zazen999]

Onion white rot. Stays in the ground for years. Pretty impossible to get rid of legally.

I have managed to grow decent onions in white rot areas; by mixing a load of sand into the soil and covering with a cloche all winter....and will be making this my main method now as even our new patch has it.

It's a bummer to be sure.

[Barbarah]

They were in raised beds

[Snadger]

Golden Bear onions are supposed to have some resistance to white rot. I grew some last year as a trial and was quite inpressed with them.
I was too late this year in getting the seed so I'm at the mercy of whiterot for my other varieties!

I think sometimes the onion sets or garlic cloves are to blame for transporting this horrible disease/fungi on to our plots!
Once you've got it, you've got it for years!

[zazen999]

The Organic Gardening Catalogue

I saw this today - and wondered if it would have any effect on white rot at all...might be worth a try

[Snadger]

The Organic Gardening Catalogue

I saw this today - and wondered if it would have any effect on white rot at all...might be worth a try

Depends on how cost effective it is even if it does work..............:confused

I've got a feeling that the people who grow marijuana use something like this to promote a strong root system, giving a strong plant which crops well and increases their profit a lot more for relatively little outlay.
Problem is that onions aren't as expensive to buy as dope!

[zazen999]

T****s were selling onions at 50p each last summer......when I look at how many I use [2-3 a day nearly every day] it would be worth it for me.

If it worked!

I'm going to ask the researchers at work....

[Aberdeenplotter]

Doesn't sound like white onion rot to me. Some of the gound in my allotment is badly affected and I have planted that area in fruit bushes. White rot manifests itself by attacking the allium roots first and an early sign is the ability to be able to lift the plant from the ground without any resistance whatsoever. There will likely be a white cotton wool like growth at the foot of the plant but it is very unlikely that the whole bulb will be rotten when lifted, as it starts at the bottom and then works upwards. The onion producers try to counter the disease by spreading mashed up unmarketable onions on the ground and working that in to encourage the sclerotia to develop and die back before the crop is planted. Unfortunately, the allotment gardener doesn't have access to large sources of unmarketable onions.

I have an annual bonfire on my plot and I try to have that on a different bit of ground every year as the heat travels downwards and will effectively sterilise the soil on the bonfire site.

[Scarlet]

I have just pulled a few of my garlic bulbs with some of the smaller bulbs completely covered in white mould with the larger ones next to them fine. I assumed it was onion rot - perhaps not?

[zazen999]

I have just pulled a few of my garlic bulbs with some of the smaller bulbs completely covered in white mould with the larger ones next to them fine. I assumed it was onion rot - perhaps not?

Yup, that's onion white rot. Just affect some and not others. Drives you potty as your onions one day look strong and healthy then the next are yellow and weak and a little tug on them pulls them out with white rot all round the roots.

[oldie]

I've given a bed two treatments with caliente mustard as I have white rot. So far it seems to have helped. My shallots are the best ever and onion sets are still OK. Golden Bear seeds are still a bit small but they were a bit late going out.

[Snadger]

....................I have an annual bonfire on my plot and I try to have that on a different bit of ground every year as the heat travels downwards and will effectively sterilise the soil on the bonfire site.

I had similar success on my previous plot which had clubroot. I planted my brassicas where there had been a communal fire and wallah!!!!!!............no clubroot problems in that area!

[Snadger]

I've given a bed two treatments with caliente mustard as I have white rot. So far it seems to have helped. My shallots are the best ever and onion sets are still OK. Golden Bear seeds are still a bit small but they were a bit late going out.

I've toyed with the idea of using caliente mustard as a soil sterilant for years!

Problem is.............I've just never got round to it!!!

Glad it's worked for you though oldie!

[Aberdeenplotter]

I have just pulled a few of my garlic bulbs with some of the smaller bulbs completely covered in white mould with the larger ones next to them fine. I assumed it was onion rot - perhaps not?

Yes that sounds like onion white rot. When armillatox was approved for horticultural use, a jugful of a 50:1 solution per onion was a good preventative.
Goodness knows what the tar oil did to the system though