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I've noticed that some of my garlic has developed Rust on the leaves. Should I do anything with it or is it okay to leave it alone?

bd

For me, when this has happened in the past, it's only happened at this time of year when the autumn planted bulbs are reaching maturity. I've pulled off the more unsightly leaves, is all and not given any treatment :-\ The garlic's not been affected in any way.

thanks for the reply!

bd

for the last two years I have had this problem so this year I have fed my autumn  planted garlic & onions with a high nitrogen feed, dried blood or hoof & something? :-\ and so far they are faring a lot better keep your fingers crossed!

Last year some of mine had it so bad the leaves died back. I still got a crop.

Had the same problem last year.  Didn't kill the garlic but bulbs seemed smaller.

I have the same problem this year again.

i found mulching with comfrey helped with rust

That is interesting, I'll try that next year!
Too late this year, I pulled my rusty Marco garlic the other day and got a fab crop, but the Christo and Germidor are much further behind despite being planted at the same time. :-\

I wouldn't panic about that different varieties grow at different rates (in general).

my garlic seems to have a lot of top and not much bottom  ;D

Do you think they will fill out? They haven't started dying back yet..

bd

There is time for them to swell yet, I'm impatient to get mine up and out as I need the space for squash! ;D

Wondering if this is your 1st year growing garlic & you just bunged them in anywhere....apols if you already know :-[ but garlic like a fertile soil & don't grow well on acid soils - the ph should be above 6.7, so it's a good idea to lime the ground  in preparation before planting. (Got that info from the fact sheet from The Garlic Farm in 2003) 8) My first year growing garlic was the year before and I hardly got my bait back ;D Get smashing crops now 8) Again, apols if this is something you already knew..

Lishka

No need to apologize! I have grown garlic before but this time I planted in soil that has had garden compost added - I did wonder if it was too rich?

bd

I have really bad rust this year and the crop is just beginning to die back so I pulled one to have a look.  It was at the end(ish) of the last row sown as well so was probably from a smallish clove (in fact, there was what looked like a small second bulb attached to the side so it may even have been double sown)  I was pleased with the result - the bulb is about 12cm in diameter and I am expecting most of the others to be bigger.  The variety is Christo.

Just saw this - 12 cm is ginormous!!

ine looked so unsightly that I pulled them up. Fair sized but would have been bigger had I left them to mature probably..Will def  lime ground next year though Lish TA

Oops!  Sorry Tim.  It pays to read through your own posts after posting.  It should say circumference :-[

Still a very decent sized bulb  :)

Thanks for the advice re:lime Alishka I will do that next year...actually it will be this year!
Mine appear to have done much better than last year anyway. I've done some experiments like planting at different depths and I've grown different varieties,
I also chilled some before planting.

Wonder if it makes any difference how firm the soil is?