Topic: radishes, garlic and raspberrys

[littlebabybird]

went to the lotty today and my impatience got the better of me, i lifted a garlic plant, well the bulb is swelling, there is loads of root but.... tight up against the bulb in the roots is blue/green mold whats happening are they all going to be bad will my onion and shallots be the same :'(


also pulled up all my radishes because there are maggots in them, are they ow in the soil here, can i plant something else in that space?

last one, i have got the other half of my plot now, under the 3 foot of couch and bindweed there are raspberry's, can i save them? how?

lbb

p.s. noticed some tiny seethrough wormtype things in the soil, should i worry about these?

[jennym]

Sometimes there will be slightly "mouldy" looking bits on garlic bulbs which are nothing to worry about. If the bulb was nice and hard, it's not rotting so they may be ok.
In land that hasn't been cultivated for a while sometimes theres a build up of creatures that eat the vegetables, but you will find that this will lessen as you dig the soil each year. They may be wireworm, which aren't a big long term problem. Not sure what the see through worm type things are, maybe someone else will know.
I would say you can grow other things there, radishes do have a tendency to get attacked in some soils anyway. Even though Ive got a lot of space for growing, radishes are now grown here the "georgie" way in trays of nice soft pest free moist compost - at least we get some to eat now.
The raspberries would benefit from at least having all the bindweed and couch cut away from them, to let the light in and so you can see what you've got. Cut the weeds down to surface level, don't try to dig it out just yet, have a good look.
Then you can decide how to tackle the weeds, either carefully dig them out around the rasps which may be tricky, or carefully spray the growing weeds with a glyphosate weedkiller, which may be trickier still as you could spray the rasps accidentally. It may be better to just keep the weeds cut to ground level while the rasps grow and fruit, and to tackle the weeds after they've fruited.

[PurpleHeather]

Raspberry and couch grass oh dear.

I would get some very big pots with fresh soil, lift the raspberry canes and pot them into the new pots, water well and place to one side. Then get rid of that couch grass. Roundup is generally good but there are treatments specifically for couch grass, treat once then in 8 weeks a second spray. It travels underground and the roots snap easily, digging up is difficult but can work with persistence.

A lot of people put bark chips or gravel around the raspberry beds to keep back weeds.

Maggoty radishes hope you did not find out by biting into one and finding half a maggot. Try sowing spring onions in their place.

There are some antifungicides which will treat mould on plants but garlic is pretty resistant so it is unlikely that the bulbs will be effected.

The see through worm things may delight the birds with a buffet so keep disturbing the soil to raise the grubs to the surface for them.

There is always something when you are growing wants to share your crops. As soon as you think you have overcome one thing, another turns up.

In lots of cases, leaving nature alone sorts out most insect problems. A few days after the greenfly appear, the ladybirds usually turn up for a feast.