Any Garlic problems out there?

I had gorgeous garlic.  Then plants at the 4 corners of the box slowly turned yellow.  Thought I simply damaged them from lifting the critter cage off and on.  Left off the cage.  No better. The leaves at the bottom turns yellow and more yellow moves up the plants.  Thought this brand new box would be perfect.  Pfft.  The cloves were my own that were replanted last Fall....

Has anyone else had this experience?  I've pulled and thrwn away 3 plants. One corner of the box has even more plants doing the same increased yellowing this morning.  The concern is not knowing what I'm dealing with because I've been spoiled with previous lovely success.  I'm re-reading "Growing Great Garlic" and looking at pictures and info online but can't seem to narrow it down.    Anyone out there also having trouble or have ideas about this please ??

Have you had a lot of rain?  I'm getting a bit nervous with all of the rain we have had.  4 - 5 inches in the last 3 days.  I have some lima beans that are looking kind of sick - yellowing.

LM,

I don't think garlic and onions like a lot of water.  Unless my MM is quite dry, I move my drip system hoses out of the bed temporarily.

Of course, one cannot simply turn off the rain.... Perhaps you could cover the bed with some impermeable material when a heavy rainstorm is expected?

llama momma wrote:I had gorgeous garlic... The leaves at the bottom turns yellow and more yellow moves up the plants.  ... The cloves were my own that were replanted last Fall....

Has anyone else had this experience?  I've pulled and thrwn away 3 plants. One corner of the box has even more plants doing the same increased yellowing this morning.  The concern is not knowing what I'm dealing with because I've been spoiled with previous lovely success.  ...Anyone out there also having trouble or have ideas about this please ??

YES!  My garlic is yellowing.  It started about 2 mths ago.   I topped with compost about a month ago and that seemed to put the breaks on...for now.  My neighbor has the same problem and is losing the battle in her row garden.  We are both baffled.

It seems to affect the soft necks worse than the hard necks in our area. Is that your experience, too?  We've had no rain...

llama momma wrote:I had gorgeous garlic.  Then plants at the 4 corners of the box slowly turned yellow.  Thought I simply damaged them from lifting the critter cage off and on.  Left off the cage.  No better. The leaves at the bottom turns yellow and more yellow moves up the plants.  Thought this brand new box would be perfect.  Pfft.  The cloves were my own that were replanted last Fall....

Has anyone else had this experience?  I've pulled and thrwn away 3 plants. One corner of the box has even more plants doing the same increased yellowing this morning.  The concern is not knowing what I'm dealing with because I've been spoiled with previous lovely success.  I'm re-reading "Growing Great Garlic" and looking at pictures and info online but can't seem to narrow it down.    Anyone out there also having trouble or have ideas about this please ??

I have had a degree of what you are talking about in the corners. I was chalking it up to exposure to temperature extremes and perhaps some water deficiency. 

DId you happen to examine your plants after pulling them up? were the bulbs collapsed? slimy? bugs? what didthey look like?

Here is a look at what is happening - left one rotted


Then turned them over --- center one rotted

In this picture this is one of the 4 corners that started with one plant then spreads     there is another picture in the next post too.

Here is another corner of the box that is starting to have problems, those are runts to begin with, but still.....grrrr...

Mine turned yellow and fell over much earlier than I was expecting.  I finally just pulled it all up and have ping pong ball size bulbs, but they look like most of them divided into cloves. I was hoping for at least 3" diameter.   Don't think I will save any of these again this year.  This was the 2nd time planting from the bulbs I purchased 3 years ago.  Haven't had what I would call a harvest of good sized garlic yet.  I won't give up, but I want to try new stock.

Kay

That's interesting. Garlic doesn't get sick that much from what I'm reading, but some diseases are just terrible and I guess that's what is bothering me.   

These are hard necks and one plant is beginning to put up a scape. I thought my harvest was weeks from now, not sooner.   I just don't know what to think anymore.

llama momma wrote:I had gorgeous garlic.  Then plants at the 4 corners of the box slowly turned yellow.  Thought I simply damaged them from lifting the critter cage off and on.  Left off the cage.  No better. The leaves at the bottom turns yellow and more yellow moves up the plants.  Thought this brand new box would be perfect.  Pfft.  The cloves were my own that were replanted last Fall....

Has anyone else had this experience?  I've pulled and thrwn away 3 plants. One corner of the box has even more plants doing the same increased yellowing this morning.  The concern is not knowing what I'm dealing with because I've been spoiled with previous lovely success.  I'm re-reading "Growing Great Garlic" and looking at pictures and info online but can't seem to narrow it down.    Anyone out there also having trouble or have ideas about this please ??

 If it is not to do with something like onion worm.


The clue you give could be the answer, " The four corners of the box "  ... that means those four plants in the corners will not have such good access to all round MM as the rest of the box resulting in stunted plants as they have two " dead side walls "  close to them to deal with .



Or still on the four corners theme ...they are wetter & colder than the others .. I think the rot is called botrytis or similar.

If it is this you have probs and I seem to recall that you won't be able to grow them for several years unless you do a mega clean out of the MM and disinfect the wood work etc ..

  I'm starting to get orange rust on my garlic's and leeks due to too much rain for too long  .
Had a grope around one of the bulbs this afternoon  happy to find that it was about two and  inches across .. leaf tips starting to yellow .

Four days of warm sun please no more rain ..... and they'll be mine .

Yes Plantoid, Botrytis is one of the issues that scare me. 
But something else you said -- I was also considering onion maggots from the book's description I mentioned above.  Now I that I think more about it when I was weeding boxes,  I think it was the garlic box that contained elongated blunt edged reddish pupa laying on top of the soil - but at the time I dismissed the little things as some weird seeds that survived the composting process.  Hmm, it's dark outside now so I'll have to look again tomorrow. 
If that's what it is then all I do is pull out the bad looking plants and stop being paranoid.  I'll get on my hands and knees and take out those pupa things.  Thanks everyone, and thanks plantoid for making me think more on the onion maggot possibility.  I'll write more tomorrow.

Were they hard or soft necks?

Hi camp,  these are hardnecks.  I'm headed outside right now to have a look at things this morning.

My garlic has had browning tips from the time they started growing this spring. They seem to be fine though and quite large. I was going to suggest the onion maggot also but the other one Plantoid suggested I have not seen. This is my first year growing hard necks so I am not sure when they will be ready. I have been told that the hard necks don't brown like the soft necks so if any of you have advise as to when to harvest please let me know. I have heard both flag day and July 4th.

Just got thru inspecting my garlic patch and sad to report that I will be lucky to get 6-8 bulbs. The whole thing has about went to the dogs. I guess the brutal winter did me in.   

Oh Bob No, yours are a hassle this year also?  

It rained and the soil is much darker so I can find those itty bitty dark colored pupa things I talked about earlier.  One corner of the box I think looks a bit worse than yesterday.  This box was new last year made just for this garlic. 

The book mentions do not put composted garlic tops back into a garlic growing area because diseases can still spread even if garlic didn't show symptoms.... Hmm Of course I don't remember what I did last year with the garlic tops. Still wondering what the final outcome will be this year.  There were about 10 garlic new garlic scapes since yesterday.  And that's all my little garlic news for now.

bnoles wrote:Just got thru inspecting my garlic patch and sad to report that I will be lucky to get 6-8 bulbs.  The whole thing has about went to the dogs.  I guess the brutal winter did me in.   

Bob... say it isn't so!  Oh dear.  My garlic has been yellowing, but I chalked that up to the natural life cycle.  Sigh.  I'm afraid to see what I will find in my own crop.

Hi everyone.  I am not sure, but I may ok with my garlic.  I'm feel awful and very sorry about everyone who might be in trouble with their garlic.   It's such a time commitment.  Not as bad as asparagus though!

Since I have never grown garlic before, I need advice please from all you experienced gardeners who know about what a finished crop should look like.

This is what my 24 garlic plants look like now:



I planted my garlic right at the beginning of October.  Being that I am so paranoid, I covered it when it rained excessively and I wrapped it in tarp when it was super cold.  Since I only had 24 in one EarthBox (very small), doing this was not too hard (I just had to remember to do it).

Since I was afraid of what might be going on down there in the EarthBox, I immediately harvested one bulb from one of the thickest stalks.  This is what it looks like:



This bulb measures at about 2 inches in diameter.  This seems small to me.  Per Bob's recommendation, I planted the "Early Italian" variety (very hard to find!!).

One thing of interest.  These bulbs are very thirsty plants.  I refill my EarthBoxes with water every other day.  Each time, the box is virtually empty.  It takes forever for the overflow slot to begin to spill over.

Earlier I had issues with dying and rotting garlic.  So instead of 64 bulbs it looks like about 1/2 or more came through ok.  Pulled some today and was surprised and grateful.  Feeling lucky too. 
Here's some of my babies-

How about another look--

Promise this is the last one.  The rest are still in the ground anyway  

oh wow, LM! Those are outstanding! So glad you got some. Half of mine are turning into Egyptian walking onions. Stuck my finger down in the others today and they seem to be pretty small. And those are the ones without mold spots on them. Got my fingers crossed though. Two more weeks...

Oh LM that's a relief! They look very nice!!!

Llama Momma, Those look outstanding!  Nice size.  Most of mine don't even come close to being so large.  I'm glad you had such a nice harvest.  Given the odds against us organic gardeners... I'd say you hit a bit of a jackpot!

LM, Very nice!   

Thanks everyone, I appreciate the nice comments.  To thoroughly dry out these big guys I put a fan on them 24/7.  Think I'll leave it on for at least the first few days then keep it on in the daytime and off at night.  Did something similar last year and was very pleased with shelf life of the bulbs. 

I look forward to pulling the others out of the ground but those look smaller and maybe need more time to bulb up.  Since losing half the harvest I'd rather give those plants every chance possible     
And if anyone has advice at this point, I'm listening!

This is my second year planting garlic.  However, this year none of the stalks look as thick/big/strong as last year.  I guess it's probably the bad winter.  I am hopeful but prepared for disappointment.