I've planted a lot of garlic last fall. It all grew very well until I noticed that the leaves started to yellow. Outer leaves and top first, slowly going to inner leaves. Almost all garlic is affected. I think it's basal rot. Can anyone suggest if anything can be done? Will the garlic die? Should I leave it in the ground or pull it? I can't find any treatment on internet. Is it incurable? Has anyone encountered this problem? It's my first time planting garlic and I think I did everything right, I put leaves and manure and planted in raised beds. I am extremely upset, please help :(
Howdy Anituchka, Two things may have happened. If you are getting lots of rain or you irrigate too much, you may have onion maggots. They are the young of the onion fly. The maggots eat the roots and base of the garlic creating a stnnky mess. To check if this is the problem, pull out some plants and you should be able to see those small maggots about half the size of a grain of rice. I don't know what's recommended in BC. Here we use Diazinon as soil drench. The second and more likely cause is Fusarium rot. The disease maybe present in your soil or you could have introduced it with infected seeds. The sympthoms are about the same as for onion maggots except the rot tends to be drier and no maggots. There is nothing you can do except forget about growing garlic, shallots and onions on that ground for at least a decade. As a precautionary measure in future, soak your garlic seed cloves in 1% bleach solution for a few minutes, air dry them for a couple of hours before planting. Good luck. Peace Thean
