Onion/Garlic problems

[Odsox]

One thing to check Susie that you may have overlooked, is to check that you don't have an ants nest in the middle of your garlic bed. I had a couple look exactly like your dying ones and that was ants apparently eating the roots or at least destroying them in some way .. which then caused the garlic to rot.
If it were a disease I would have expected them all to succumb.

[Millymollymandy]

I have absolutely no idea or advice just sorry you are having more wierd problems like your poor raspberries last year.

Does anyone else think that fungal and bacterial diseases are on the up? I had so many problems last year I spent hours researching umpteen different diseases I'd never heard of till I decided to stop because all I was getting was a major headache and it wasn't going to solve anything - and even I had wanted to chuck chemicals around there are far fewer available these days anyway.

[Odsox]

Oh dear Susie, that sounds exactly like Onion White Rot and I'm afraid it is incurable, and can last in the soil for umpteen years.
I Googled it and came up with this ... http://www.which.co.uk/documents/pdf/on ... 108726.pdf
The picture of an infected onion in my Geoff Hamilton book looks just like a copy of the picture you posted.
Sorry to be the bearer of such awful news.

[Millymollymandy]

OK Susie now following on from you post in the "what have you learned" thread, you now need someone to come along with something a lot worse to make you feel better! It certainly is times like this that make you feel like giving up! Don't want to mention my cat but that is worse than losing a crop of any fruit or veg, believe me!

If you do replant raspberries try to site them well away from the originals as they may well have some kind of disease which could be in the soil too and use new ones not your originals.

[Odsox]

If I were in your situation Susie, I think I would strip everything out of those beds and give them all a good soaking with a strong solution of Jeys Fluid. Then grow other crops in there for the next 3 years and try again in the 4th.
Of course I'm not allowed to recommend that course of action as Jeys Fluid is not registered in the EU for sterilising soil, even though everybody did it years ago.

[Odsox]

Yes, I would.
At least you can use the unaffected ones for cooking and if there's too many, you could perhaps dry some.
I did that last year as I had a lot of overwintering sets that bolted, and they are very useful in stews.

If you clear all that bed I can see in the photo and give it a good soaking, plus maybe another good soaking in a couple of months time, you may just get rid of it.

[JulieSherris]

Sterilising Plant Soil......

I got this link in my eHow email yesterday - ok, you can jiggle the quantities, but I faved it as I didn't know if I might need something like this one day.....

http://www.ehow.com/how_5372257_make-in ... 10_06_2010

Might help a little bit Sue, you never know!!

[Millymollymandy]

Oh in the oven - I've read about using the microwave, well that'll take her until 2019 anyway to get those beds sterlised so she might as well just wait and save the hassle and mess in the kitchen.

[JulieSherris]

Ah, shurrup! I was actually thinking that if that was me, I'd dig out the raised beds & put the soil into a bags or a huge box, then refill the beds with fresh soil.... then when you put the cooker on (for a roast or summat) you can pop a trayful in at the end of cooktime.... slowly slowly catchee monkey....... Anyway, I was being helpful