Turning rusty in the rain

The weather this year has been good growing weather for some things - one being rust on our garlic. The rust thrives in low light/high moisture conditions which it has certainly experienced in abundance this year.

In common with lots of others (including Monty Don) our garlic leaves are affected. They actually look rusty with orangy spots and streaks on the leaves

The rust that affects garlic also affects other members of the allium family especially leeks and chives. Onions do seem to have some resistance although can also be affected. Luckily for us the autumn planted onions growing alongside of the garlic seems to be unaffected and the leeks and chives are some distance away. Although as the rust spores are carried by the wind this is no safeguard. It also means that, on an allotment site, rust can be spread from plants growing on someone else's plot.

If rust strikes early in the season it can affect plant growth and also affect the size of any resulting bulbs but as this is at the end of the garlic life cycle it should not have caused any problems with bulb formation.

If you research garlic rust on the Internet you will find a variety of opinions from those who consider that it is the devil's spawn and affected plants should be lifted and immediately destroyed to those who consider it's just another thing that you have to live with.

My approach is somewhere between the two extremes, at this time in the season, when garlic bulbs are likely to be as fully grown as they are going to be, in order to reduce any spread I have lifted the bulbs and I won't be composting the leaves. If rust had appeared earlier in the season I would have cut off affected leaves to curtail its progress and hoped that the bulbs would continue to swell.

Our garlic was growing in a spot which is quite shaded so to cut down on our chances of rust next year we will need to plant it in a more open area and maybe space the cloves a little further apart to allow air to circulate. Rotating crops will mean that the garlic won't be planted in an area that has been affected in the last couple of years or so  There is not much we can do about the weather though.

Rust doesn't render garlic bulbs inedible and I've also read that research has shown that you can also plant cloves from rust affected garlic without infecting the resulting crop.

A week or two ago after spotting the rust I lifted the variety that seemed most severely affected - Albigensian Wight. This was a bit earlier than I would have liked but I didn't want to leave the rusty plants in the ground for longer than I had to. Initially I was pleased with the size of the bulbs produced but when we came to use one it became apparent that it hadn't split into cloves.

Shortly after we spotted rust on our garlic, Monty Don on Gardeners' World mentioned that his garlic was rusty and lifted some which like our Albigensian Wight had produced decent sized bulbs. I was intrigued to know whether his garlic had formed cloves or not but unfortunately he didn't go on to investigate.

Garlic needs to go through a cold spell (I read that it needs one to two weeks at 0-4C) in order for the bulb to split into cloves but as these cloves were planted outdoors on 15 October that shouldn't have been a problem. I posted a question on a forum that I visit asking if anyone else had solid garlic bulbs and it seems that I'm not the only one with uncloved garlic.

I've now lifted all the garlic growing on the plot and will lift that grown in tubs shortly and then I'll produce a summary of how the varieties etc have fared so watch this space.

By the way I've read in various places the suggestion that a spray made up of a weak solution of skimmed milk (10 - 30% milk to water) can help prevent rust or powdery mildew - has anyone any experience of using this?