Storing Rusty garlic?

[GodfreyRob]

Pulled up all my garlic crop - all of it affected by rust. What should I do?

Cut off all but a few inches of the tops and let it 'ripen' - store as usual

Or can I store/preserve it in some other way that won't risk the rust spreading to next years crop?

[GodfreyRob]

[Blue Bird]

Hi I have the same problem so wait with baited breath for some ideas.  was thinking of breaking into cloves and freezing?

[tim]

Peel off the affected leaves & do as usual.

[Hyacinth]

Agree with Tim 8)

[tim]

That's nice!!

[redimp]

I dried mine first then found the rusty outer leaves just slid off anyway.

[Tee Gee]

I dried mine first then found the rusty outer leaves just slid off anyway.

This is how I would do it as well!

Hope you got rid of the affected leaves and didn't put them in the compost heap.

Burning or landfill is best for these.

[caroline7758]

What about the council's green bin? Would that be ok?

[Robert_Brenchley]

I had garlic so rusty last year that the leaves died back. I got rid of all the leaves in the compost bin, stored the bulbs, and had no problems. It lasted as well as normal, and I've got no rust this year. Garlic rust is always around, and I find it very hard to believe the plants aren't routinely exposed to spores, regardless of what I do with infected leaves.

[redimp]

Composted mine too - the only thing from onions and garlic that I do not compost are the peelings etc from the ones that get a touch of white rot.  PS as an aside and relating to a related thread, my alliums are on an eight year rotation.

[KathrynH]

My garlic has rusty leaves too, it ususally does but doesn't affect the bulbs. Once they are dug up and dried off for a bit, they can just be plaited together, hung up and stored.

[Robert_Brenchley]

I wish I could grow alliums on a long rotation, but they tend to take up a good third of the available space by spring! Fortunately interplanting with corn and cucumbers seems to be working, to save space.