What's going on with my garlic?

[Vince G]

Picture attached is probably the worst specimen, but most have yellowing leaves with some degree of dessication.

Any thoughts?

[Scarlet]

Time to harvest?

[Vince G]

Dunno, is it? Not grown garlic before, so I was following the old adage about planting on the shortest day and harvesting on the longest...although obviously that's not far away.

[Newton]

Pull some......the bulbs will probably be quite well formed.

If the roots are ok it's not white rot. It might be rust. Not sure though.

Hope they are ok though.

[Scarlet]

As Newon says - pick some and see. I planted mine in sept last year and harvested first week of June

[Hazel at the Hill]

Oh dear - I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but that looks exactly like the damage cause by the alium leaf miner. We have it here at the Hill - there's a pic looking v similar to yours on the link here, and if you google you can get the factsheet from RHS and from Gardening Which?

Allium Leaf Miner

On the plus side, the RHS factsheet is really gloomy - we find that the onions or leeks get a bit twisty, but tend to recover in time. Never had it in the garlic though.

Edit:

Although I might be wrong. See what the others think.

[Vince G]

Interesting, I've got onions next door no more than about 18 inches away and they're perfect apart from one or two having gone to seed. Would the leaf miners not have had a go at them too? Might pull one tomorrow and see what it looks like down below.

[Florence Fennel]

Have a quick furtle round one Vince to have a look. If they've split and are big enough, harvest them. I hope it's not the pest.

[zazen999]

Allium Leaf Miner - which unfortunately in onions sometimes doesn't show until you start to prepare it for your meal. These days in the Midlands, we are having to start growing all alliums under cover due to all the pests they get.

[Two_Sheds]

If the roots are ok it's not white rot. It might be rust.

White rot makes them keel over flat on the soil, because the roots literally rot away: and there'll be white fluff on the roots.

Rust is a rusty colour, it's very obvious.

I've got onions next door...Would the leaf miners not have had a go at them too?

Not necessarily ~ the adult may have been quite happy to lay her eggs just in the one place. It's quite normal to find isolated patches of pest infestations, esp. with things like aphids which might smother one plant and leave its neighbour alone

[Two_Sheds]

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Your photo shows distortion (did you mean that, instead of dessication?) and splitting: classic signs of eelworm

[taff]

it looks like one of the layers hasn't split properly to let it grow, so all the greenery is fighting for room under the brown papery layer.

[bearded bloke]

Yep that was my thought as well taff

[bearded bloke]

alium leaf miner ///////////// Never had it in the garlic though.

I had it my garlic last year only found it after harvesting though,when you trim off the excess greenery look down & check for bore holes in the leaves,if there are any split the bulb into cloves & look for a 2mm ish hole & discard damaged clove/s use the rest as "green" garlic

[Vince G]

Nope dessication, i.e dried out, look it up. They're distorted too, but the outer leaves are crispy and yellowy-brown.

I dug one up tonight and the bulb looks perfectly alright, full of well formed if quite small cloves. So I think I'll leave them be for a few more weeks. If when I dig them up they'res till not much bigger, well I've just have to use them as garlicky spring onions!