Garlic crop rotting away!

**Jay-ell** · 03-06-2017, 12:54 PM

Looks like allium white rot. Don't grow any alliums in that bed again for lots and lots of years. Sterilise your tools after working that bed so you don't transfer it to other beds.

**seasprout** · 03-06-2017, 06:19 PM

Garlic horror.

Mine look worse than yours Hop-A-Long, I pulled a few of the grim looking ones today, to find no bulbs and slimy skins. Horrible the lot of them.

I thought bugger this and dig up the lot, I'm leaving them to dry in case I can make some use of them... (Possible compost.), I've planted Sweetcorn in the spot now.

Tonight I will drink wine inorder to forget the garlic horror.

**Greenleaves** · 03-06-2017, 07:19 PM

I am with Jay-ell, personally i would burn them

**Jay-ell** · 03-06-2017, 07:48 PM

DON'T COMPOST THEM. You'll just infect the entire plot. BURNING IS GOOD

**happyhumph** · 03-06-2017, 08:03 PM

I'm also with jay-ell. If you compost them you'll spread the fungus everywhere. Burn or bin.

**Mr Bones** · 04-06-2017, 07:06 AM

Looks like you have rust and white rot. With white rot the garlic won't store so instead of drying strip back to bare cloves and drop them in white wine vinegar until ready for using.
You could prepare next years garlic bed by sprinkling it now with garlic granules so any white rot spores are tricked into germinating but then find nothing to eat and will die.
Also growing garlic on ridges (e.g raised beds, with or without edging boards) helps improve drainage to keep white rot at bay.
I sympathise with you, we have white rot all over our plot.

**Jay-ell** · 04-06-2017, 10:26 PM

Garlic Granules are available in bulk from Equestrian Suppliers which works out alot cheaper that those little pots from the super market if you want to treat a wider area. You might want to start treating the patches you're going to use in future years and repeat it a couple of times a year for a few years to reduce the amount on the plot.

I'm going to work garlic treatment into my Jungle plot which has white rot - treating every bed which doesn't have alliums (all of the ones in the Jungle from now on) or legumes (alliums have allotropic properties which can affect the growth of legumes, not sure if the granules will but better safe than sorry)

**hop-a-long** · 04-06-2017, 11:29 PM

Thanks for all the replies everyone. Cheers for the solid advice too, this forum is a great resource!

I've noticed some shallots I had in by the garlic have also succumbed to the disease now too so it looks like the plot is pretty heavily infested. The garlic I took the pics of was the best of what I could salvage, there were lots of rotten stalk bases with no cloves that I just left behind, but I'll go back and gather up all the diseased bits of crop I can find & bin them in a plastic bag.

Interesting tip about the garlic granules Mr Bones! I'll try it out once I figure out a spot for next year's garlic attempt.

And cheers for the cloves in vinegar tip, I was planning to maybe plait up or stick the best of the cloves in some oil but glad I didn't now!

And there I was, thinking Garlic was such an easy crop to grow!

**Scarlet** · 04-06-2017, 11:52 PM

Originally posted by Mr Bones View Post

With white rot the garlic won't store so instead of drying strip back to bare cloves and drop them in white wine vinegar until ready for using

I mince my cloves and use a good white wine vinegar.....brilliant lazy garlic. Great for using in salad dressings and when cooked the vinegar burns off.

#you can't store raw garlic in oil - have a read up on botulism.

**Greenleaves** · 05-06-2017, 07:04 AM

I am a little sceptical about the garlic granules, sorry Mr Bones.

As the disease can live in an uncultivated bed for circa 10 years I can't see it working. �f it were that simple someone would be marketing something

**Jay-ell** · 05-06-2017, 09:58 AM

I posted a link to research done in a thread a couple of years ago but can't find the thread which showed that it helped reduce and control the white rot (although I don't think it totally eliminated it) however I can't find that thread or link at the minute.

So here's a different one
http://www.academicjournals.org/arti...%20et%20al.pdf

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/1...60660209507010

There's also been some studies into the use of brassica waste in the treatment of white rot but I can't find them either (my Googlefu is low at the minute). Brassicas contain antifungal chemicals so digging in your old caulis and kales might be one strand in white rot control.

**MarkPelican** · 05-06-2017, 11:14 AM

I saw a similar idea to the garlic granules in garlic water.

Take some (uninfected) garlic cloves and crush in water. Leave to infuse for a couple of days then water on the bed. The theory is the same. The spores "germinate" and die because there's nothing to feed on.

Having said that, I've given up growing Garlic, Onions and Leeks because of whiterot. (I blame some other kind person who put their infected bulbs into my compost heap but its probably my fault as much as their's).

**lmayhow** · 05-06-2017, 07:13 PM

I have the orange spots on my leaves which I assumed to be leek rust non of the plants have yellow leaves yet so I was leaving.... should I be pulling them up then? About to go on holiday Saturday so they were going to be left alone for 2 weeks

**Penellype** · 05-06-2017, 08:36 PM

Rust and white rot are not the same. It is quite possible to have rust without having white rot (I frequently get rust on my alliums but touch wood I've not had white rot).

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