Grow Your Own Magazine

Noticed tonight that my garlic , which has been growing really well, has a type of rust on it.
Does anyone Know what it is, what causes it and how i can get rid of it????
Many Thanks
John

Chive rust?

(I'd like to claim some expertise - but I just read about it on the Herb forum here lol - this thread here, info courtesy of Nicos!)

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Warning: I have a dangerous tendency to act like I know what I'm talking about.

All my garlic developed rust last year but it didn't seem to affect the development of the bulbs. This year OK - so far!

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Gardening is a matter of your enthusiasm holding up until your back gets used to it.

It is a common fungal problem of the alliums that affects garlic and leeks more often than chives and onions. With garlic it reputedly saps the strength of the plant causing smaller bulbs. I wouldn't suggest pulling and burning as usually it isn't that bad but don't compost the leaves.

My approach is to cut and burn any badly affected leaves and to give it a dose of Maxicrop.

Here is a thread from last year where Protea made a couple of suggestions including believe it or not, garlic spray.

Rusty Garlic

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Paul

got this on my garlic in a trough i took off the infected leaves and they seem ok now.

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joanne culyer

Hi

The Garlic Farm, (I bought my garlic from them), suggests sulphate of potash as in the message below.


"Hi Ric,

I would suggest a liberal application of sulphate of potash.

Unfortunately, Rust is not curable; all you can do at this stage is help to prevent the onset of the disease worsening.

Should Rust continue to develop, the knock-on effect of this disease is reduced bulb size.

Garlic Admin"

Cheers

Ric

where do you get sulphate of potash from?

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joanne culyer

Any good garden centre, JoJo - J. Arthur Bowers, amongst others, market it.

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Gardening is a matter of your enthusiasm holding up until your back gets used to it.

I thought that sulphate of potash was to assist flowering, so i am uncertain why this would be useful as you dont want the garlic to be start bolting.
Anyone have any other comments on this?

Hi Stv,

We use sulphate spray as organic fungicide here (NL), as for the potash, it will also help the plant to fight stress/diseases in certain extend (apart from the flowering and tuber forming functions).

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I grow, I pick, I eat ...

Mine have rust, but most of the leaves are still green. I'm just gonna let them get on with it and not add any chemicals. I should get another month or so out of them before they stop growing. I hope.