Author Topic: Worst garlic ever  (Read 2730 times)

squeezyjohn

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Worst garlic ever
« on: June 02, 2017, 10:03:58 »
Further to the white-rot conversation - I had a bit more of an exploratory root around in my garlic bed yesterday and it's an absolute disaster.

The bed was one I have never used for any onion-family in my 6 years on the allotment, and I followed the organic method using garlic powder which is supposed to "clean" the soil of white rot spores if there were any present.  I planted 2 hardneck varieties and one soft-neck.

Because of the mild winter, they romped away and made fine, wide-necked, tall plants.  That's normally a sign of nice big bulbs to come.  But in the last couple of weeks they began to look sickly and some kind of critter (could have been rabbit, mice, rats or deer on my plot!) had begun eating the lower leaves and in some extreme cases, the whole plant!

With mention of white-rot I pulled up an exploratory garlic and it was definitely in the first stage of a white-rot infection  :BangHead: :BangHead:

The softnecks have already made fairly decent sized bulbs (but clearly still had some way to go) - I have pulled them all up now - almost every single one had some signs of white-rot!  Interestingly the "layers" that were affected exactly corresponded to the leaves that had been eaten by the critters!  I don't really know what that might mean?

The hardnecks are also affected it seems ... but they haven't made scapes yet and the one I pulled up had almost no bulb at all.  I can't see how I'm going to get a single hardneck to harvest at this rate.

So I think I can put this down as the very worst garlic year ever for white-rot despite it being the first year I have attempted to do something to stop it!  I don't think it's a very good advert for the treatment with garlic powder method.  But I think the conditions must also have been perfect for white-rot to thrive.

This year has been characterised by:

Mild winter with little or no frost.
Incredibly dry spring (no rain for 7 weeks)
mid-spring frosts
very hot and wet May

I can see that would have made big strong plants which then became stressed, followed by the perfect growing conditions for mould!

Either way - it's a disaster.

ACE

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Re: Worst garlic ever
« Reply #1 on: June 02, 2017, 10:45:18 »
Mine are rubbish also, just weather I reckon, the onions that are nearby are romping away, in fact some are big enough to pull and ripen. I used some of last years corms and some new ones, they are all the same apart from the elephant which is growing well but not a real garlic.

BarriedaleNick

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Re: Worst garlic ever
« Reply #2 on: June 02, 2017, 11:08:25 »
Mine too - total rubbish.  Forgot to treat the patch last year and white rot has taken hold of some but they are just terrible anyway - three different varieties too.   Rust all over them and they are dying off at a rate of knots.  I do some at home in planters and they are ok - a bit weedy but hopefully I will have some.
Moved to Portugal - ain't going back!

ACE

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Re: Worst garlic ever
« Reply #3 on: June 02, 2017, 13:44:51 »
I wonder if it was those severe mid-spring frosts. I will take a trip out over the garlic farm way and take a look over the hedge and see what's occurring there.  If it is disease it will show there as they are 'organic'  so not using any chemical  deterrents.  But then it is the only organic farm where a worker died from supposedly using pesticides a few years ago.

Nora42

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Re: Worst garlic ever
« Reply #4 on: June 02, 2017, 14:16:33 »
hate to say but the garlic we grow in the raised beds at school looks very promising - mainly because the care taker hasn't pulled it up this year :blob7:

Could anyone tell me if I want to show some at the suburb Hort Soc show on 17th June when would be best to dig it up - do I need to dry it before showing.?
thanks
Nora
Norf London

rowbow

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Re: Worst garlic ever
« Reply #5 on: June 02, 2017, 15:20:10 »
I putt my elephant garlic in in November, it was looking really good, then they started to look a bit sad, so dug them up no white rot but little brown maggots chomping away, I had planted some leeks and onion sets, and they have started to knot up, and are the same as the garlic, I had planted those in April, I don't know how to avoid the fly/maggot problem, the elephant garlic hadn't properly formed, due to the lack of  frost, so will putt the cloves in the fridge this year, this should give them a head start.
Thinking of using some Amillatox on the soil.
John  :BangHead:
Spring has arrived I am so excited I have wet my PLANTS

caroline7758

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Re: Worst garlic ever
« Reply #6 on: June 02, 2017, 18:02:45 »
I decided not to bother with garlic this year as I had some white rot last year. Sounds like it was a good call!

Seacarrot

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Re: Worst garlic ever
« Reply #7 on: June 04, 2017, 07:59:14 »

I would also like to join this growing rubbish garlic club.

Mine have looked peaky for a while, I had a poke about yesterday and found fluffy slimy bases.

So I pulled some, they where horrible. No bulbs, mostly goo.

Almost certainly last effort at growing it for a while.

Build a man a fire, and he'll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life.

strawberry1

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Re: Worst garlic ever
« Reply #8 on: June 04, 2017, 08:53:46 »
that made me have a little furtle yesterday, just gently around one bulb. It looked fine from the top but now I have everything crossed as we are expecting several more damp days. I am not relaxed about them and my shallots this year

BarriedaleNick

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Re: Worst garlic ever
« Reply #9 on: June 04, 2017, 09:00:29 »
I pulled all mine yesterday - total kak.  Not growth on them at all.  No white rot but they just haven't grown and look like spring onions!
Moved to Portugal - ain't going back!

Vinlander

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Re: Worst garlic ever
« Reply #10 on: June 05, 2017, 10:03:22 »
The bed was one I have never used for any onion-family in my 6 years on the allotment, and I followed the organic method using garlic powder which is supposed to "clean" the soil of white rot spores if there were any present.  I planted 2 hardneck varieties and one soft-neck.

I'm confident you got the timing right, but just for anyone else reading this  - the "sacrificial" garlic/onion powder/mash has to be spread evenly on the soil well before any alliums are planted.

The idea is that the "sacrifice" or lure wakes up the spores (technically sclerotia) so they all starve and die soon after because they can't find the living plants they need to parasitise.

I don't know how fine you can cut it on timing, but the anecdotal evidence I've read suggests that the best time is fairly soon after you clear the bed in autumn in preparation for planting next spring. I'm just guessing it leaves time & weather for the fungus to spore and die, and time & weather for the spores to wake up and starve before you provide a host...

Any experiences to refine this would be useful.

If this is true I suppose the first inference I would draw is that it won't work, for example, if you clear, add your lure and then plant winter onion sets. Anyone tried this? It's so long since I bothered with them...

I'm using the term "sacrifice" in its engineering/technical sense - not a religious one - though if you want to choose a moon phase, chant, or wear a special hat for your "libation" that's fine - it won't stop the method working :sunny:.

Cheers.
With a microholding you always get too much or bugger-all. (I'm fed up calling it an allotment garden - it just encourages the tidy-police).

The simple/complex split is more & more important: Simple fertilisers Poor, complex ones Good. Simple (old) poisons predictable, others (new) the opposite.

squeezyjohn

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Re: Worst garlic ever
« Reply #11 on: June 05, 2017, 11:19:28 »
I'm afraid I applied the treatment last summer on a bed where I have NEVER planted alliums!  So any spores must have been older than that too.

Bravo4Zero

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Re: Worst garlic ever
« Reply #12 on: June 05, 2017, 21:49:41 »
Dug all of mine at the week end as they were all turning yellow. Only planted one type, Germidour.  No white rot or rust but just mainly very small bulbs.

squeezyjohn

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Re: Worst garlic ever
« Reply #13 on: June 05, 2017, 22:30:14 »
I'd say if you pull one or two and find no white rot ... leave them in ... you don't lose anything and you might get some sort of decent crop ... it's very early to be harvesting ... normally end of June in to July here.

johhnyco15

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Re: Worst garlic ever
« Reply #14 on: June 06, 2017, 11:35:35 »
going to pull mine next week dont hold out much hope they look really awful those that dont show signs of white rot of which you can count on one hand  have really bad rust its so bad I've little rust piles on top of the soil woeful this is defiantly the last year for the allium family may try leeks  but again leek miner moth is really bad here on the sunshine coast which today is like a tropical storm high winds and monsoon rain so im stuck indoors on the bright side the wifes out so im watching the cricket
johhnyc015  may the plot be with you

squeezyjohn

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Re: Worst garlic ever
« Reply #15 on: June 06, 2017, 11:57:31 »
Leeks do really well under a net tunnel if you grow them in blocks rather than rows and it keeps the leek moths away.  It would be a shame to give up on leeks.

ACE

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Re: Worst garlic ever
« Reply #16 on: June 06, 2017, 12:50:13 »
Don't give up on leeks. I had terrible leek moth worm and somebody suggested cutting about two thirds off the top. So I went along the row with the shears and they grew again without the tell tell holes in the eating bit. The holes were all in the dark top leaves and they were a lot fatter as well.
« Last Edit: June 06, 2017, 12:54:26 by ACE »

strawberry1

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Re: Worst garlic ever
« Reply #17 on: June 15, 2017, 20:36:02 »
autumn planted garlic and shallots from self saved bulbs, I lifted mine today because the leaves were just starting to bend. It was with much trepidation and to my delight they are stonking, absolutely terrific. The garlic is the best I have ever grown, very consistently large and dry bulbs with no rot anywhere. So now they are up and laid out on the allotment for a few days as sun and wind are forecast. All I did last year in that bed was grow a green manure crop after the previous crop was out and covered early. Only me so it isn`t worth my while getting another crop in and I do like to prep for next season as I go, so the manure this year will be mustard and I will have it grown, chopped and covered in just a few weeks 

2DEGUS

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Re: Worst garlic ever
« Reply #18 on: August 27, 2017, 13:12:20 »
Sorry folks I have had the best garlic ever here in Wales. Autumn planted ones no better than spring ones.

 

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