by Leslie Cox; Thursday, July 21, 2016

So…now that I know it was botrytis rot on my ruined garlic bulbs…how did it attack my garlic?

One big clue would be in its other common name: Botrytis Neck Rot.

The spores of this fungus find their way into the stem of the garlic through a convenient hole or scar caused by an insect pest at, or near, soil level. BUT, if there is no convenient opening for these spores, they are quite capable of penetrating the neck of the garlic (called the pseudostem) all on their own. Especially, if it happens to be a wet year which would loosen the protective leaf fibres.

Well, it definitely did not start out to be a wet year here. April 2016 was one of the hottest on record in our area. Both the high and low temperatures, on average, were 3 degrees C above the averages for April 2015…according to my weather readings.

Rainfall was also pretty poor…only got 39 mm (1.6 inches) for the entire month. (According to what I gathered in my homemade rain gauge.) So much for spring showers!

So…thanks to the lovely warm temps in April, most gardeners were reporting insect explosions.

And with so little rainfall in April, unless we were watering diligently throughout, some plants got stressed. That opens them up to insect attack.

Assuredly, plants do release certain chemicals that broadcast the dire strait they are in through the airwaves. Opportunists that they are, insects are very finely tuned to picking up on a plant’s distress state.

And so the stage was set.

Almost.

We have yet to see the main actor enter Stage Left.

His cue? The 68 mm (2.7 inches) of rainfall we got in May…half of which came down in just two days…combined with much cooler temps throughout the month.

Absolutely perfect conditions for the dormant sclerotia (see note at end of article) to germinate, producing small mushroom-like structures which then burst open…releasing tens of thousands of botrytis spores into the wind.

Ta Da! The villain has arrived on the scene and is beginning his murderous carnage on my garlic.

End of Scene Two. Intermission time to get out into the garden.

Scene Three to follow in next blog entry.

Glossary:

Sclerotia are rough-looking black lumps of hardened fungal mycelium. They can be a quarter to three-quarters of an inch (6 – 19 mm) in diameter….but are usually on the small side.

Mycelium is the vegetative part of the fungus through which it gathers nutrients from the surrounding environment.