Garlic Rust

Came across this for prevention of rust, no idea if it works though, but might try it next year:

"find some used electric cable, take the copper (earth) wire, cut into short lengths of 3-4cm and push through the stem of the garlic 2cm above ground level when the garlic plant is 15-20cm high"

http://www.thegarlicfarm.co.uk/garlic_farmers_blog.aspx

 

That's interesting Kristen as I thought that inserting copper nails in a tree was one way of killing it.

 

Think @HarmonyArb debunked that myth, it was either him or another woody person that said they'd found a ring of copper nails deep within a tree. It had just grown around them.

 

Thanks for that Zigs. Saved me a few nails - there's an elder growing in the wasteland aka 'garden' next door that I was thinking about giving a taste of copper to.

 

Ring barking on the other hand......

 

We attended a garlic fest in Bennington Vermont early in September and I was amazed to find that there were several thousand people there; the parking lot was brimning with cars from all over the northeastern United States. I had no idea that there was that much interest in lowly garlic, and, I had no idea of how many varieties of garlic were grown.

Well, to make a long story short, we purchased seed garlic and bulbils for several varieties of garlic, even though we had never planted garlic before. The garlic was planted, as instructed, the first week of October. We had two weeks of unusually warm weather and the garlic sprouted, and is growing like mad.

Today we put several inches of hay on the garlic to protect the garlic from our severe winters here in New York. I surely hope the premature sprouting has not lessened our chances of a nice crop of garlic in the spring.

 

I've learnt the hard way not to plant the onions, garlic, shallots and leeks near the broad beans which I sow here, also in October. It's a given that broad beans get rust, and I'm sure it transfers to the alliums. So this year, they're well separated and I will give the alliums a squib of Bordeaux mixture when I do the peach trees....

 

I think they are related but don't transfer from garlic to beans or vice versa. It is the same rust on garlic and leeks though. Not sure why the onions and ornamental and alliums seem to be unaffected, perhaps I haven't looked closely enough.
If I remember I might try the copper wire next spring and treat one row of garlic but not the other.

 

I'm sure you're right, Nigel, but I do remember reading somewhere about companion planting and it wasn't advisable to plant beans near alliums. Don't you just hate it when you're told to do something, or not do something, but not told why?

 

This is an old thread I'm resurrecting, but I'm wondering in the interim if there has been any advances on how to combat garlic rust or people have had a good success lately with something.

Mine has rusted. Pulled a couple and they seem healthy enough though look like plump spring onions. Problem is I have lost the label and have no idea the variety


I remember a while back some old fella I know suggested spraying with gin. I thought he was having me on, maybe he is. I did a search on the interwebs idly expecting nothing but there are a few mentions of this as well. is it a joke though?

GG

 

I'll be your garlic

 

Just a word of warning about "home remedies". If you are caught using anything that is NOT a registered pesticide you face fines of up to £5000.

 

Typically this sort of regulation is restricted to commercial producers. Can you confirm that this applies also in a purely domestic environment for own consumption, and provide a link to the legislation, please?