Rust problems on garlic

[vegnut]

Hi all
Last year my garlic contracted a bad case of rust around late spring early summer, and obviously stopped growing. The whole thing just turned orange .
Is there any safe sprays that i can use to stop it from happening again this year, or any other ideas grapes have that are tried and tested.
I have 120 garlic growing so vaseline dabbed on any orange spots i see isn't an option, i'm bound to miss a lot.

[zazen999]

I'm not being facetious; but have you thought of using some of this?

[gojiberry]

Not found anything yet to control rust on alliums. I do find that planting further apart does help especially with leeks. I usually manage to get a decent crop of garlic even if the rust comes along but it ruins the use of scapes if you grow them. Hope it's not to bad this year Vegnut.

Ian

[vegnut]

Hi zazen999 and gojiberry.

I think that using cooking spray would cover too much of the leaf area and would have a different or detrimental effect to it's growth, which would probably be not too desirable. Please correct me if i'm wrong, but thanks for the thought zazen999.

I usually plant at a good distance apart and would hope that this helps. Unfortunately wind is at a south westerly direction on the plot most of the time, and from that direction last year i noticed that some plots had a fair amount of weed which was covered with rust. I can only think that the spores were blown across to my plot (not helpful). On the great scheme of things there is not a lot to be done. This is why i was hoping for a quick fix of allium rust killer. I suppose you can't have it all

The funny thing gojiberry, is that my leeks don't get any rust at all, and they are in the bed next to the garlic. how confusing is that.

Fingers crossed though that some grape will find that miracle cure

Many thanks guy's

[Florence Fennel]

Is your bed getting plenty of light/sunshine and you don't overwater? I can only wish you luck with it this year Vegnut.

[poly]

Sorry, no miracle cure here but I like the sound of spray oil. Who knows if it will help, but if I get rust on my garlic this year I'll try it on a sample patch

[Aberdeenplotter]

Sorry, no miracle cure here but I like the sound of spray oil. Who knows if it will help, but if I get rust on my garlic this year I'll try it on a sample patch

yups you can throw it straight into the frying pan and not need to add oil but it's gonna be real messy to handle. Also and this is the big flaw, the oil will block up the stomata in the leaves preventing the transpiration of moisture and stagnate the osmosis process. vaseline is only ok because it is used on small areas and the bulk of the leaf remains available for said processes.

[vegnut]

yups you can throw it straight into the frying pan and not need to add oil but it's gonna be real messy to handle. Also and this is the big flaw, the oil will block up the stomata in the leaves preventing the transpiration of moisture and stagnate the osmosis process. vaseline is only ok because it is used on small areas and the bulk of the leaf remains available for said processes.

Yep, thats pertty much what i thought, but without all the fancy bits . Thanks Aberdeenplotter.

The beds are in full sun and well drained, but thanks for the thought and luck Florence Fennel

Looks like i have just gotta battle it out and be as vigilant as possible this year.
I read somewhere that tomato feed is very good due to the potash content. I don't see any problem trying that on part of the crop, you never know. I'll let you all know if it works at the end of the growing season.

[poly]

Ah well it was a nice thought for me while it lasted

[cupcake]

Rust seems to be specific to one type of veg. My garlic got it last year, but the leeks next to it didn,t. I still got a good crop tho.

[Creemteez]

If the spores may be being blown over some sort of wind break?.....

[bramble]

I was lead to believe that rust came from coach (or scutch) grass. \Maybe if there is any close to your garlic crop you might pull this out and it might help.

[vegnut]

There is loads of couch grass in the area, unfortunately most of the grass areas in and around the allotment site is full of the stuff, were always having to edge the borders just to stop this stuff spreading too much. I didn't know of the connection with rust though, i'll look into this a bit more. Thanks for the info bramble.
Not sure a windbreak would be viable for me Creemteez, i would have to put a wind break or fence of somesorts around 120 feet long, and it would still come over the top to settle (i just know it would).
Although some sort of windbreak around the individual beds may be an option, but it would have to be quite high. Another idea worthy of some thought. Thanks again.