Why garlic rots in the garden: what to do, causes and how to deal with it

According to certain signs, the vegetable grower can figure out why the garlic is rotting in the garden. This will help to take action and avoid big crop losses. You can list the main causes of bulb rotting:

• fungal diseases;
• bacterial rot;
• viral diseases;
• pests.

Reduce the risk of infection will help simple rules of agricultural technology:

1. Compliance with crop rotation rules. The annual change of location for crops on the site helps to avoid the reproduction of microorganisms and pests that affect a certain group of plants. For garlic, the return time to the garden is at least 4-5 years. The best predecessors are young cabbage, cucumbers,
2. Choosing a sunny and elevated place on the site for planting garlic. For this crop, especially winter varieties, spring stagnation of water after the snow melts is dangerous. To prevent garlic from rotting, you can protect the plants by arranging a high bed.
3. Conscientious autumn cleaning of the site from all plant residues and annual digging. Most pests and microorganisms are able to overwinter on neglected rotting bulbs and stems, and move to vulnerable young shoots in the spring.
4. Using he althy seeds. Before planting, you need to sort out and weed out all garlic cloves with signs of disease.Store seed bulbs in a cool dry place (+1-2 ⁰С) in small linen bags or boxes with holes. It is useful to renew planting garlic stocks by growing bulbs (for arrow varieties).
5. Carefully drying the seed bulbs before storage.
6. Treatment of planting material with fungicides before planting.
7. Timely watering and loosening of beds.
8. Removal of diseased plants outside the site.
9. Preparation of a fertile neutral soil mixture in the garden and timely top dressing with complex fertilizers.
10. Maintain optimal planting and harvesting times.

Fungal diseases

The main culprits of garlic rotting in the garden and during storage are mushrooms. Irregular watering paired with adverse weather conditions provokes the development of pathogenic microorganisms.

To reduce the risk of infection through infected seed material, pre-sowing treatment of garlic cloves with fungicides: Maxim, Fitosporin, HOM.

Fusariosis (bottom rot)

The optimal conditions for the growth of imperfect fungi of the genus Fusarium are high humidity and warm weather (above 13-20 ⁰С). Therefore, most often this disease occurs in the southern regions.

Fusariosis affects many cultivated plants and usually overwinters on plant debris. The reason for the rapid infection and decay of the bulbs is mechanical damage by pests and during harvesting.

Symptoms:

• After the formation of 5-7 leaves, their tips begin to turn yellow and fade, gradually capturing the whole plant.
• Brown stripes can be seen on the leaves. A small pink coating sometimes appears in the sinuses.
• If you try to pull the garlic out of the ground, it is easily separated, as the roots quickly rot with Fusarium.
• In bulbs and cloves, the bottom softens and becomes covered with light mycelium. When opening the bulb between the teeth, traces of mycelium can also be seen.

When Fusarium disease is detected, diseased plants are urgently removed from the site and, regardless of weather conditions, watering of the beds is temporarily reduced.

White rot of garlic

A frequent intruder in the garlic garden and the reason why the bulbs rot is the fungus Sclerotium cepivorum Ber. What white rot does with garlic:

1. The first sign of infection visible to the vegetable grower is the yellowing of the tips of the leaves, which quickly covers the entire green part of the plant.
2. If you pull out a diseased garlic from the ground, a white coating of mycelium of the fungus is visible on the roots. It quickly penetrates the bulb through the bottom. The garlic begins to rot and becomes watery.

Often the owner of the garden does not attach importance to the drying of garlic leaves and learns about the disease when the bulbs are already rotting.

Fungicides help save most of the crop with timely processing and removal of infected plants from the site (Uniform, Switch, Custodia).

Downy mildew (downy mildew)

Fungal disease of most bulbs, the causative agent of which is Peronospora destructor Casp. Suitable conditions for growth are very high humidity and cool weather (7-16 ⁰С). Summer with frequent fogs and prolonged precipitation contributes to the decay of the bulbs. Under such conditions, peronosporosis can destroy most of the crop in 2-3 weeks. After the onset of dry sunny days, the spread of the infection slows down.

In order not to miss the initial stage of the disease, you need to know the main symptoms:

• Leaves are covered with yellowish oval spots.
• In very humid weather, a light purple coating of spores is noticeable on the plants.
• Leaves curl and fall. Gradually, the infection captures the entire aerial part, descends into the bulb and starts the processes of decay.

Downy mildew overwinters in the soil in neglected bulbs or seed material.

When a disease is detected, the beds must be treated with fungicides: Quadris, Areva Gold VG, Ridomil Gold.

Bacterial Rot

Mechanical damage to garlic is the main reason why garlic is affected by bacterial rot.

Usually the culprits are insect pests that violate the integrity of the bulbs.Infected teeth are covered with strokes and spots, the flesh becomes glassy, acquires a pearly hue and a “boiled” appearance. Such garlic has an unpleasant putrid odor and gradually turns into mucus.

The danger of this infection lies in the fact that the final decay of garlic usually occurs already during storage and is difficult to recognize by the appearance of an unopened bulb.

How to deal with bacterial rot:

• pest control;
• in autumn, the garden is conscientiously cleared of organic residues;
• top dressing with mineral fertilizers with a high content of phosphorus;
• observance of crop rotation.

Pests

A common reason why garlic rots in the ground is damage to plants by pests.Violation of crop rotation rules, impoverished soils and unstable watering of beds can lead to the rapid spread of pests and large crop losses. For integrated pest control, general-purpose insecticides (Intavir) are used.

Onion fly

Onion fly larvae feed on garlic pulp. The insect hibernates in the soil at a depth of 10-20 cm in the form of a pupa. During the flowering of horticultural crops, the fly crawls to the surface and after 5-10 days lays white eggs on garlic or nearby on the soil. After 3-7 days, the larvae appear and gnaw their way into the bulbs.

2-3 generations of onion flies appear during the season. The reason for the rapid growth of the onion fly population is the rainy summer. Damaged bulbs quickly rot due to secondary fungal and bacterial infections. The leaves of garlic turn yellow, curl and dry. When cutting the bulb, you can see the larvae.

The following activities will help protect garlic beds:

• Deep autumn digging of the site.
• Mulching garlic beds with peat, as the onion fly does not like peat soils.
• Planting between rows of carrots.
• Dubbing plants once a week from late April to mid-July, with a mixture of 10 g of tobacco dust, 100 g of ash and 5 g of ground pepper.
• Spraying the soil and plants with the composition: 2-3 teaspoons of ground red pepper and 250 g of tobacco dust are stirred in 2-3 liters of boiling water. Infuse for three days in a warm place and dilute in a bucket of water with the addition of 50 ml of liquid soap. Processing is carried out once every 7 days starting from the end of April.

Onion Root Mite

This small eight-legged pest of the species Rhizoglyphus echinopus under the right conditions (23-26 ⁰C and 60-65% humidity) is capable of damaging a large part of the garlic and onion crop.It lays 200-300 eggs in the bulb, from which root mite larvae hatch after 7-8 days. A month later, the new generation is ready for further breeding.

Distribution methods:

• mite is easily carried by the wind;
• he is able to move between plants on his own;
• the pest can overwinter on garlic and onion residues in the soil or in seed bulbs between cloves.

The tick gnaws at the bottom of the bulb, because of which it lags behind and rotting of the garlic begins in the garden. The leaves of diseased plants turn yellow, when the bulb opens, brown waste products of the mite are visible between the teeth.

Control measures:

• infected beds can be treated with insecticide (Keltan or Rogor);
• after harvesting, it is useful to dry the garlic for a week at a temperature of 30-35⁰С;
• before planting, pickle the teeth for 20 minutes in a 0.8% solution of colloidal sulfur.

Onion stem nematode

The first place among pests of garlic belongs to the stem nematode, the worm of the species Ditylenchus allii Bej. In heavy clay soils, it can destroy most of the crop. The reason for the decay of garlic is not only mechanical damage to the bulbs, but also secondary damage by fungi and bacteria.

These pests are suitable for wintering the remains of garlic plants, cloves and seed bulbs forgotten in the ground. Larvae and adults feed on the succulent parts of the teeth and stems. Both high humidity and cool weather are favorable conditions for propagation.

Signs:

• First of all, the worms eat the bottom of the bulbs. The root quickly rots and dies.
• The scales crack and fall off, the bulb rots quickly.
• The plant noticeably lags behind in development, the leaves are first covered with light stripes, then turn yellow and dry.
• The infected plant is easily lifted off the ground and has an unpleasant putrid odor.
• When the infection is late, white traces of penetration of the nematode into the plant can be seen on the leaves.

To general precautions, you can add:

• Relief of heavy soils by introducing loose organic components: peat, straw, sawdust.
• Sow infested areas with green manure followed by digging.
• Etching seed cloves in formalin solution 0.5-1% or wood ash infusion.

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