Why does garlic turn yellow in the garden
Bitter cloves of garlic are used in cooking, medicine and cosmetology. Since this vegetable crop is not cheap on the market, it makes sense to start growing it. In general, the culture is unpretentious, but sometimes it is also subject to disease. Consider why garlic turns yellow and what to do if garlic leaves turn yellow.
Garlic turns yellow in the garden
Causes of yellowing
There are few reasons for the yellowing of the leaves in garlic.
Frost
When it comes to early shoots, garlic feathers often turn yellow from frost. At the same time, you need to understand the difference between the concepts of freezing on the ground and freezing in the air. Sometimes the air temperature exceeds 0 ° С, and the soil is already frozen to -1 ° С.
Morning frost speaks of night frosts on the ground. If there are open containers of water in the garden, you should look for a thin ice crust on the surface of the water. You should also pay attention to the appearance of the culture: in frozen plants, feathers first fall on the ground, and then the tips turn yellow.
Pests and diseases
Even yellowing of garlic leaves may indicate the presence of diseases. Feathers often turn yellow due to fungal diseases. Sometimes harmful insects are to blame. It is not difficult to determine what is the cause of the yellowing of the leaves of a vegetable crop in this case. It is enough to dig up one plant and look at the bulb. If there are insect larvae or insects, mechanical damage to the root system or pink bloom on the bottom of the bulb, then pests are to blame.
In case of fungal diseases, the head begins to rot after the aerial part of the plant dries up. When exposed to parasites, the aerial part of the plant wilts in parallel with the bulb.
Diseased plants develop yellow spots that turn brown over time. The same applies to plants that are susceptible to attack by parasites.
Poor care
Sometimes the tips of the garlic turn yellow due to improper care of the vegetable crop. The plant needs moderate watering. Excess and lack of moisture equally negatively affect the appearance and condition of the foliage. First, the tips of the lower leaves on the garlic turn yellow. In the absence of any action on the part of a person, gradually the feathers of the lower tier become completely yellow and wither. At the same time, the tips of the remaining feathers of the plant begin to turn yellow.
Lack of micronutrients
If the garlic turns yellow for no apparent reason (there are no diseases and pests, the plant is moderately hydrated), then maybe the vegetable lacks nutrients. Most vegetable crops need potassium, nitrogen and magnesium.Unfortunately, there are no methods for determining the chemical composition of the soil at home, so it is impossible to say for sure that the reason for the yellowing of the tips of the leaves of garlic is a lack of one or another trace element. But if mineral and organic fertilizers are applied extremely rarely to the soil, then the probability of a lack of nitrogen, potassium and magnesium is 90%.
Soil composition
The appearance of yellowness on the leaves can be explained by the inappropriate type of soil. This garden crop does not grow well on acidic soils. She needs neutral soil. When growing crops on acidic soil, the garlic in the garden turns yellow a few weeks after germination. First, the lower feathers turn yellow, then the upper ones.
If it is known that the composition of the soil in the garden is not suitable for growing this vegetable crop, a small greenhouse with a suitable type of soil should be artificially made. This is a costly event, but the efforts will pay off. The use of agrotechnical methods to change the type of soil does not always give the desired result.
What to do if garlic turns yellow
There are several reasons for yellowing garlic
To fix this problem, you need to figure out why the garlic turns yellow. Let's talk about how to fix each problem separately.
Frost
Most often, winter garlic turns yellow during frost. To protect the beds from frost, they should be mulched. For mulching, use humus, peat, small shavings or straw. It is best to mulch the soil with organic matter, which serves as a fertilizer for vegetable crops. To protect the planting from frost, lay at least a 5 cm layer of mulch.
Sometimes in spring, summer garlic, planted too early, turns yellow. Before starting planting a crop, they check if the soil has warmed up and watch the weather forecast. Sometimes the reason that winter garlic turns yellow is failure to comply with planting dates. In the southern regions, vegetable crops should be planted no earlier than November.
In the middle lane, a vegetable is planted in September or early October. after planting, the soil must be mulched. This helps the plant survive severe winter frosts. In this case, it is best to mulch with leaves.
If the tips of the garlic leaves turn yellow, the situation can still be saved. In the store, they buy any growth stimulant for plants and treat the culture with this solution.
Poor care
Garlic leaves often turn yellow due to improper care. If there is little rain in the spring, the plant is watered 2 times a week. If there is no precipitation, the vegetable crop is watered 2 times more often. If there is too much rain in the spring, the crop should not be watered. Does not require watering and a vegetable mulched with humus. The plant tolerates excess moisture worse than its lack. The next day after watering, the soil is loosened.
Lack of minerals
In addition to timely watering and loosening the soil, the culture needs to be fed. In early spring (April-March), mineral fertilizers are applied to the soil. To do this, a furrow is made between the beds and fertilizer is poured there, after which the furrow is poured and the entire area is watered. Since it is impossible to determine which microelement is missing, complex means are used. They must contain potassium, nitrogen and magnesium.
After the emergence of seedlings, foliar dressing is carried out with mineral fertilizers (May-early June). Also, a young vegetable in May can be fed with organic matter. The second foliar dressing is done in the summer (June-July).
If the stem and shoots of the plant look powerful, you should not be zealous with feeding. An overabundance of microelements has the same negative effect on the plant as their lack.
Soil composition
If the tips of the leaves of winter garlic turn yellow immediately after germination, then most likely the matter is in increased acidity. You can lower the acidity of the soil by using wood ash.True, you won't be able to get by with a few handfuls of ash. The site must be abundantly covered with this natural material. If we talk about norms, to lower acidity by 1 sq. m of land make about 700 g of ash. Alternatively, you can prepare a solution of ash (for 8 liters of liquid 200 g of ash). Even the plantings of a young vegetable, which has turned yellow, are watered with this solution.
You can lower the acidity of the soil with lime. 40-50 kg of lime is applied per one hundred square meters. It is best to introduce this natural material before winter. We do this while digging a vegetable garden. When mixed with soil, the desired effect is achieved faster. After liming, crops that need neutral soils can be grown for 10 years. After this time, liming is repeated.
You can lower the acidity of the soil using green manure. In late August or early September, rye, oats, white mustard or phacelia are planted on the site. The green mass is mowed before buds begin to form. It is buried in the ground. It is advisable to mow green manures 2 weeks before planting white cloves.
Pest and disease control
Garlic can be saved
If winter garlic turns yellow in spring due to diseases or pests, first of all, you should determine which disease or pest you had to face.
Fusarium
Considering why young garlic turns yellow, the first thing to talk about is fusarium. With this fungal disease, the tops of the leaves first turn yellow, then brown stripes appear, then the leaves, arrows and the stem dry, as a result the plant dies. The disease develops rapidly. If you push back the leaves and look in the sinuses, you can see a pink bloom. In a bulb with fusarium, the root system dies and the bottom softens. Most often, the disease affects plants in the southern regions of the country.
There are no drugs for the treatment of fusarium. So that the disease does not spread, the affected plants are removed from the garden, they are burned. Since the spores of the fungus can live in the soil, the place where the diseased plant grew is treated with a concentrated solution of copper sulfate.
Bacterial rot
If the garlic turns yellow and brown spots appear on the bulb, the plant is affected by bacterial rot. The feathers turn yellow first, then the stem and arrows. In the advanced stages of the disease, an unpleasant odor emanates from the bulbs.
Plants infect bacteria in the soil. If there is no mechanical damage on the vegetable crop, the disease is not dangerous. If there is damage due to the activity of parasitic insects, the bacteria penetrates into the plant and begins a destructive effect.
There are no drugs for treating bacterial rot.
Stem nematode
When a stem nematode is affected, the planting of garlic turns yellow early. This is the most dangerous pest that feeds on the juice of a vegetable crop, which leads to its death. The ends of the leaves turn yellow first. Then light stripes appear on the sheet plate. As the disease spreads, the leaves begin to curl, the plant withers. The bulb affected by the stem nematode dries out.
It is difficult to save a plant affected by a stem nematode. Today there are no effective drugs against nematodes. Alternative methods are also ineffective, so the plant needs to be burned. You can only destroy the tops, and the bulbs, if they have had time to form, leave: they can still be saved.
Treatment of bulbs from nematodes
You can fight the worm using folk methods. The first involves the use of an ash solution in which the bulbs are soaked for 2 hours. The second method involves the use of a solution of potassium permanganate, in which the bulbs are soaked for 24 hours. You can also try a formalin solution. Saline is also effective. For every 10 liters of water, take 100 g of salt. Regular table salt will do.
Preventive measures
We figured out why garlic turns yellow in spring. Diseases are the main cause of yellowing. In order not to think about how to treat crops affected by certain diseases, it is necessary to carry out prevention even before the vegetable begins to fade and turn yellow.
Regardless of why the garlic turns yellow in the garden, the preventive measures will not differ.
- Most bacteria, fungi and parasitic insects live in the ground, so the main preventive measure is crop rotation. Every year they try to change the landing site. Diseases also accumulate in the white teeth themselves, so the seed is periodically updated. This is done at least once every 3 years.
- Before planting, white cloves are treated in a fungicide. This makes the plant resistant to many bacterial and fungal diseases.
- Marigolds or calendula are planted along the perimeter of the beds with this vegetable crop. These plants smell away from parasites that move through the air (for example, onion flies). And their roots are poisonous to some insects in the soil. In particular, they kill the stem nematode, which is one of the most dangerous diseases of this vegetable crop.
- Onions should be planted next to the vegetable, which also repels some pests.
- If fungal diseases are detected, the affected plants are removed from the site, and the rest are treated with systemic fungicides.
- Pest prevention is another mandatory preventive measure against diseases.
There are not so many objective reasons for the appearance of yellowness on young greenery. If you quickly determine why young garlic turns yellow, you can eliminate the problem by minimizing crop losses.