Allotments 4 All

Quick question - my garlic is covered in rust, should I be worried?

Also, bit of a beginer with garlic and planted shop bought cloves last november as all the garden centres had sold out. They have grown well (despite the rust) but have only one stem, should they have had several, to indicate that cloving was taking place?

Dig one up and see david - was talking to my Italian neighbour this morning and he dug up one of his rusty plants and there was WHITE MOULD starting at the base. He says it's the wet start to the season. See E-J's advice at http://www.allotments4all.co.uk/joomla/component/option,com_smf/Itemid,57/topic,20407.0
Mine are in a bed, looking a little bit rusty, but when I dug one up it was OK so will leave them (and keep checking til the end of July).
One fat stem is right for garlic :)

thanks superspout, they do indeed have fat stems. I was worried in case they were turning out to be some kind of mutant elephant garlic type thing.

I had a poke round under one of my Albigensians today, and the bulb was still pretty small, so I'm not touching anything for a while.

Personally if I wouldn't worry, last year lot of people were complaining about their garlic going rusty (including me).  The rust only affected the leaves & stems, the garlic was perfectly fine.  Just let it grow and pull it out in July/August when the plant is ready.  Each clove only gives one stem, each clove becomes a bulb.  I always grown supermarket bought garlic and never have a problem.  Good luck

thanks mad!

thats reassuring