Free In Pursuit of Garlic by Liz Primeau Page A

of its threats aren’t deadly and can be controlled by good garden practices, such as removing and destroying plants that look sick, avoiding too much watering and subsequent soggy soil and humid air, and planting only healthy, unblemished cloves with intact skins. Crop rotation (changing the planting location) also helps prevent the spread of viruses and fungi, and it’s always a good idea when you trim or deadhead neighboring plants to remove plant debris from the area in case it’s harboring bugs or disease.
    VIRUSES ARE common, and although most aren’t fatal, they will affect a plant’s vigor. Symptoms of viruses can include striping, streaking, or mottling on the leaves and twisted or stunted leaves, and if one plant has a virus, it’s likely to soon spread to others via aphids or thrips. Practice prevention: keep plants healthy and unstressed by making sure they have enough water and a fertile soil.
    A couple of stem rots caused by soilborne fungi in the Fusarium genus can affect the stem plate, leaving it with rotted roots, brownish discoloration, or lesions with a reddish fringe. Early symptoms include yellowing leaf tips and shoot dieback, though sometimes leaves show no symptoms at all. Blue mold, caused by various strains of Penicillium molds, can enter bulbs through damage during storage or can invade damaged cloves separated from the mother bulb too long before planting. Infected cloves may not grow or may produce weak plants with yellow leaves, though strong plants often overcome the disease. An infected bulb can easily spread the mold to its neighbors in storage.
    Pink root, which is caused by a fungus active in temperatures above 75°F (24°C), attacks the plant’s roots, turning them pink. You might see a little leaf browning, but the plant doesn’t usually die. Pink root may reduce crop yields, however.
    Rust, another fungus, shows up as yellow or white spots or streaks on leaves followed by orange pustules filled with orange spores. If the disease worsens, black pustules appear. High humidity and low rainfall encourage the disease, but, oddly, warm weather (above 75°F, or 24°C) or temperature below 50°F (10°C) inhibits it. Although rust is not often a problem, it will spread easily by wind if it gets a foothold—a late-1990s outbreak in California severely reduced crop yields. Again, prevention is key. Keep plants healthy and unstressed, without either too much or too little water, and avoid applying too much nitrogen.
    WHITE ROT, caused by Sclerotium cepivorum, has been responsible for many crop losses in the United States and other parts of the world. It also affects other members of the Allium genus. It starts as a fluffy white mycelium—a network of branching, threadlike spores—on the stem plate, which then advances up the plant. Growth is stunted, and leaves yellow and die. If only one plant appears to be infected, both it and the surrounding soil should be dug up and removed and the adjacent soil fumigated. But once the fungus has become established, alliums cannot be grown on the site for many years.
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    When a cow has been three nights with almost no grass, give her a preparation of two parts grass to one part garlic stalks. A Brahmin can then partake of her milk and maintain propriety.
    THE BOWER MANUSCRIPT
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    INSECTS THAT affect garlic include mites, and an infestation can destroy a bulb. Onion maggots and thrips sometimes attack garlic; the maggots bore into the bulbs, and the thrips chew on the precious leaves. Microscopic nematodes, or eelworms, eat garlic, onions, leeks, and chives, as well as celery and parsley. The nematodes are so tiny they’re invisible. In severe cases the bulb may separate from the underground stem and turn into a pulpy mass—sometimes when you try to harvest the bulb it’s not there. Planting only healthy, unblemished bulbs is the best way to prevent nematodes, but pouring hot water over cloves you’re about to plant might kill the little