Garlic Graveyard
Scarify
Posts: 20
A sorry tale for my garlic plants so what went wrong?
I planted out my (soft neck) garlic in January this year (Sorry, I didn't note down the variety!)The patch was in good sunlight and is on a well-draining sandy loam.I applied a small amount of blood fish and bone just before planting.All went well with 100% of them growing on and producing good above ground growth.After about three months I applied a little hoof and horn fertilizer.The plants appeared to mature and start to yellow and dry in June.Getting back from holiday in mid-July the plant tops had all died, dried and fallen over.On digging up my expected crop, I just found 95% had died and rotted away and the remaining 5% were very small and showing signs of rotting.We are in Devon and have not had a hard winter but did have some mild frosts,which I understand garlic likes. The Spring has been particularly wet at times but nothing excessive. Any thought as to what went wrong or what I have done wrong?
Many thanks for any posts.
Posts
hi scarifiy I planted my soft neck garlic November I put bonemeal and growmore mixed all up before hand then put garlic in ground kept watered all year when no rain this year best garlic ever had .all I did was water with bio food in w/can once a week till well established then just left to it self a couple of frosts did no harm . you say when you dug them up they where rotted did you notice if any worms in base I took mine out 2weeks ago even some of last years small bulblets that had grown around a small garlic took well so unless the hoof and horn was to strong mind you I have never used it
Hello michael mpc,
Thanks for your reply. Thanks also for your growing plan. It looks like you have fed and watered them well. I did not water them at all but we did get quite a bit of rain in Devon. My intention with the hoof and horn was to give them a nitrogen boost but maybe this was the wrong thing to do.
There were no little worms when I tried to dig the crop up. However, another gardener has suggested that is could be White Onion Rot, which seems to be a fine white fungus infection and apparently you can't grow any of the onion family in the same plot for ten years! I have a well-established chive plot very close so I'm hoping that this shows it's not the fungus as this should have killed the chives as well.
Scarify
Oh sorry to hear your garlic failed.. It happened to my friend too.. But I was lucky I lifted mine 2 or 3 weeks ago and left them to dry in the sun to mature.. I planted 'Marco' in October
I have a good crop this year enough to repel any Vampires and cook lots of Spag bol and Garlic chicken etc.. Pity youare in Devon, or I could have shared, I'm in Essex..
Last edited: 21 July 2016 18:30:09
None of you are alone, too much rain not enough frost. I'm considering only doing spring planting garlic from now on.
hi dave I e found that planting winter garlic is best as long as you don't forget to water as I said the winter garlic is better best I had they say that summer grown is not as large as winter Michael