over-wintering garlic & risk of disease

[Forage420]

I've seen one or two UK growers on youtube who claim not to over winter garlic as it is much more prone to disease like rust. This is also my experience, as last year I placed quite a large order with the garlic farm for solent white and piccardy, and the whole lot got rust, which was extremely disappointing as well as being a waste of money.

What's your experience? I'd like to hear it.

[bramble]

Hi Forage, I have always planted my garlic about October time and have overwintered without any problems.
Garlic needs a long growing season and preferably frosty to split the bulb into cloves.
Only once did I get rust and was told it came from coach grass which was growing close by.
Someone else may have other helpful advice.

[Forage420]

On my site a lot of people have been complaining about coach grass, I didn't realise it had any relation to garlic pests and disease. Happily though my red onions did very well over winter and that was without mulch, so I'm hoping for even more yield this year with the no dig approach.

It would be interesting to see if there are any reliable studies comparing spring planted garlic to winter, but I can't find any and I've looked quite hard.

[Snoop Puss]

You can plant garlic out till quite late in spring (I was told 27 March as the last planting date here and that was for autumn-planting garlic). However, one way to get a long growing season in would be to plant in modules and then plant those out later on. If you keep them under cover, but still cold, you keep the worst of the winter wet off. I did this one year and it was very successful.

[lmayhow]

We planted our garlic last year October and got rust but quite late so apart from a couple all was good so lucky I guess our leeks though have also started with rust planted out in same quarter plot fingers crossed we have less rust next season when I rotate...

[Jungle Jane]

I read something about giving a side dressing of sulphur of potash in February to help against rust,I'll see if I can find it...there's this link that mentions it.

Garlic the wonder bulb - Telegraph

[Mark_Riga]

I always plant in Autumn and do get some rust - I think it generally kills off the plants by June but have generally been happy with the size of the cloves and been able to keep enough for the following year planting.
The main cause of rust I think is damp being harboured by weeds or planting too closely. Some common weeds, particularly groundsel, are prone to rust itself. So keep weed free to let the air circulate freely.