Yellowing Garlic?

[GoDawgs]

In a different thread Bill and Jane both mentioned some yellowing and stunting of their winter veggies due to all the rain. We've been doused too. My garlic is getting some yellow leaves. They had a light snack of fertilizer in November. Hungry, too much rain or maybe other cause?

It appears that it's mainly the lower leaves. The leaves emerging from the centers seem to be a healthy green. Should I take off the yellow leaves or just leave things alone?

[bower]

How are they doing, GoDawgs?


I've had some yellow lower leaves due to frosty snowy weather in May and June last year, but never removed any leaves off garlic. I think it's fairly common for garlic to get some yellowing due to environmental stresses, but the leaves are left on for them to get as much good of it as they can.

[zipcode]

Yellowing leaves is usually a sign that the roots are not in the best of condition since fertilizer is there, and they usually don't need that much really. The french say you should not fertilize at all in the year you plant garlic, just what is left from previous crop (not entirely sure that's optimal).
Roots can be attacked by a fungus, just underdeveloped due to water, partly dead due to water, etc. Some varieties are much more adapted to wet weather and some to dry. Look at what thegarlicfarm sells in UK, those should more or less do well in the normally wet uk conditions.

[GoDawgs]

Thanks for the input, folks. It is appreciated. This is just my third year growing garlic so I'm still learning.

Not much has changed but it's not getting worse. The center foliage is still good to go and the rest periodically gets frosted. We've been bouncing back and forth between three day stretches of lows around 25, highs 40's and lows around 40, highs low 60's.

[bower]

It could be the frosty nights. Bill and Jane have a point too, about ferts washing out of the soil when you get too much rain. Garlic doesn't like wet, but nothing you can do about it - but maybe another snack would help, especially if the rain is laying off for a bit, give them a chance to get nourished.



I've read that garlic does like ferts, and besides what is applied at planting time, some people do side dress with compost or give liquid fish fert in early spring (which I sometimes meant to do but always forget, so I can't say if that helps). In any case I'm sure it depends on what you started with - soil is so different from place to place (I wouldnt mind some of that French stuff! )

[GoDawgs]

Originally Posted by bower

Bill and Jane have a point too, about ferts washing out of the soil when you get too much rain. Garlic doesn't like wet, but nothing you can do about it - but maybe another snack would help, especially if the rain is laying off for a bit, give them a chance to get nourished.

That's a real good point. A snack of Miracle Grow will probably happen once the bed dries out a bit. We got another 1.5" last night and 1.3" the night before last. Sigh. Just when standing water went away in the "swimming pool" at the bottom end of the garden, it's back again. Good thing I won't need that area until late April!

Originally Posted by bower

I've read that garlic does like ferts, and besides what is applied at planting time, some people do side dress with compost or give liquid fish fert in early spring

I've also read that garlic doesn't like nitrogen in the last two months and for quality bulbs it should about run out of soil nitrogen by the end. But some side dressing with bonemeal for some phosphorus is also recommended by some. These two varieties are ready early May so I need to pay attention to nitrogen application.

[GoDawgs]

Originally Posted by zipcode

Roots can be attacked by a fungus, just underdeveloped due to water, partly dead due to water, etc. Some varieties are much more adapted to wet weather and some to dry. Look at what thegarlicfarm sells in UK, those should more or less do well in the normally wet uk conditions.

That would make sense except the climate difference between the southeastern US and the UK are so different that I'd be really hesitant to plant what does well there.

[Gardeneer]

GoDowgs,
I think maybe some of those yellowing on the tip of older leaves could be due to deep freezing. Not sure.
I will post a picture of mine tomorrow , to compare..
I keep fertilizing. They should hang around for about 3 more months. M8ayb0e longer, dep0ending how9 soon it gets ,real hot.

I have also planted some bulbils. A first for me.

[GoDawgs]

I gave them a light sidedressing of ammonium sulfate about nine days ago and the new green coming from the center looks pretty. Gotta cover them up tonight as we're headed into some low temps in the upper 20's. I don't want them blasted again!

They should be ready to pull around May 1.

[Gardeneer]

Here is a picture of my garlic patch

[GoDawgs]

Looking nice! No blasted leaves, just pretty green.

[bower]

I love how crazy early you two get to harvest garlic. At some point I want to try out the Turban types here, just to see if they can stand it. I will have to find a mild one, because combining the 'hot' reputation with our sulfur loaded soil, the results could be downright scary. I know Georgia is famous for the sweet onions, GoDawgs, so your garlic is probably very different tasting (and nicer!) than what we would get here with the same variety.
Anyway, the gorgeous bulbs you got so early, definitely impressed me that turbans are worth a try.

[Gardeneer]

Down here we get a very short cool spring weather. Sometimes by June it can get real hot. So we extend our cool season by fall planting. I do it around mid November. So my garlic plants get stablished in the winter and take off in the spring.

I have also planted lots of bulbils ( from my last years plants ), for the first time. I don,t know how those will do.

[GoDawgs]

I went ahead and planted out four cloves of two turban varieties (Scilla and Maiskij) yesterday just to see how they do when the weather turns hot later.

The September planted garlic was put under cover for the latest cold spell. It's 29 this morning so hopefully the garlic didn't get blasted again.

Bower, if I planted the Yellow Granex onion, the variety grown down in Vidalia, it wouldn't be as sweet as those grown in Vidalia. They have a special soil there that makes the difference!

[Gardeneer]

Garlic is quite cold hardy.
Last winter temperatures went down to low teen and my garlic plants survived but some got bruised. This year we,ve seen low 20s and no harm was done.