10 replies to this topic

[aspen]

I had always thought that garlic had some sort of super power, that it cured everything, could be used as a bug spray and it was a true survivor. How wrong could I be. Twenty three years ago we started growing this delicious herb from a 1Kg bag of purple garlic we bought from the markets. We ate half and planted the rest with an astonishing result of large cloved bulbs that you would die for. We carried on growing it year after year, planting the biggest cloves and finally got to harvests crops of 20Kg or more. We plaited them up in beautiful braids and sold them at markets at very high prices. Some were even bought for a photo shoot in Sydney.
Then one wet summer we harvested a batch of rotting black garlic which we put down to too much water. How wrong could we be. It happened again the following year but on a much larger scale. We consulted our city's university where a student Dean Metcalf was doing his PHD in agriculture. He recognised it as onion white root rot, Sclerotium cepivorum, prevalent in the commercial onion industry. His research was into developing new methods in reducing this disease using organic methods rather than fungicides.
How did we get it? We bought a 10Kg string bag of brown onions from a super market from which some  went bad and were thrown into the compost heap. The following year we threw our rotting garlic stems and all into the compost pile which exsasbated the problem. We literally spread the fungal spore from one end of our gardens to the other. The spore lives for 20 years as it has a hard casing and waits around for any member of the onion family to be planted  and starts the process all over again.
Today we still grow garlic but not in such a big way and have not sold it since. We may have spread the disease to other growers. Last season we had a 5% loss to the disease which is getting better by the year.
Lessons learnt. Do not throw rotting vegetables in your compost heap. Burn it or bury it.


http://www.onionsaus...white%20rot.pdf

[mariaandrea]

So sorry you went through that, but thank you for sharing and the warning. That's really useful information and a good illustration of the saying, one bad apple spoils the barrel.

[dconklin]

Oh wow! Sorry you went through this.  I don't throw compost onto my garden, but did let a few of the rotten tomatoes and peppers that fell off the plants last year stay on the ground.  I think we should be ok with that.  I am a little concerned now since I planted my garlic along with my onions! This is the first year for me growing onions and garlic.

[aspen]

My suggestion is if you grow garlic keep some to replant the following year rather than buy it. This would reduce any chances of bringing disease   home. Your garlic and onions are fine planted together. Whenever you visit grocery stores inspect the onions closely before buying them. Over the years I have seen the early stages of the disease on ones they are trying to sell.
There are other diseases http://www.no-dig-ve...d-diseases.html and a quote from this link about white root rot.
Of all the onion pests and diseases, onion white rot really will make growers "mad-dog mean", as Clint Eastwood would say.

[mariaandrea]

aspen, on 08 April 2012 - 08:08 PM, said:

My suggestion is if you grow garlic keep some to replant the following year rather than buy it. This would reduce any chances of bringing disease   home. Your garlic and onions are fine planted together. Whenever you visit grocery stores inspect the onions closely before buying them. Over the years I have seen the early stages of the disease on ones they are trying to sell.
There are other diseases http://www.no-dig-ve...d-diseases.html and a quote from this link about white root rot.
Of all the onion pests and diseases, onion white rot really will make growers "mad-dog mean", as Clint Eastwood would say.

Thanks for that link. I grow garlic indoors and have never had a problem, but do get pests in my containers on my balcony sometimes and I've been considering growing a few onions, which I don't know much about growing. Very helpful!

[4leafclover]

Thanks for the information. This is very true. We had a backyard garden before and my mom used to plant garlic and onions that seemed to have had a fungal/spore formation. At first the produce seems to be fine but the following harvests weren't good already. When my dad saw this, he ordered me to harvest all veggies there is, "open" the soil and its surrounding then burn them. My mom and I didn't really know about the effect too. But since then we always burn any vegetable that seem to have a fungal/spore growth in them.

Thanks much for the information!

[Shortpoet-GTD]

4leafclover, on 09 April 2012 - 10:53 AM, said:

Thanks much for the information!

We have a great community here, don't we? Lot's of folks sharing their expertise.

[zararina]

We had tried planting some onions too before but it was not successful.
I am not aware that rotten vegetables can cause illness for some other crops as I think they could just be rotten and serve as a fertilizer to the soil.

[Sandra Piddock]

I didn't realise you weren't supposed to put rotten vegetables on the compost heap, either, but when you think about it, it makes sense. Something causes the rot to start, and if you put those vegetables on the compost heap, you may be passing it on to other plants.

[vidasandi]

Omg , so this must be the problem I am facing too. Every time I try to plant the garlic it just keeps rotting. I don't grow  them on a large scale, but I have been using rotting veggies as compost. So I guess I'll have to start a fresh, and as you said forget about veggies in the compost.. will burn them. thanks, your post has been life saver( garlic saver)...

[dziomek]

I have only tried growing garlic once, and it did not do well. I am unsure of what types of spores were in the gardens prior, as we had just moved onto the property. I will try again when we are able to buy our own land - and we will dig up an area where there were no gardens prior just to be on the safe side. I have had good luck with onions, so perhaps it was just the fact my thumb wasn't as green as I thought it was. :)