What is the Garlic Disease at WeeBee Farms?
Over the years we have found a few diseased bulbs in our garlic plots (two diseases: White Rot, and garlic nematodes). Although the diseased bulbs have been thrown out, there is a chance that a trace could be present on the garlic we are selling. These could infect your garden soil (affecting only garlic, onions and other alliums). This doesn’t affect the quality, flavor, health benefits or storage life of the garlic we are selling.
We recommend that you don’t plant garlic from our farm if you grow on a large scale, or plan to sell your garlic. If you do plant it for your home garden you should do a hot-water soak before planting per our instructions. This should eliminate 95% of the disease spores. This hot water soak should actually be done for any garlic that's not grown on your property. After you do this one year, you can replant garlic from your own garden without doing the soak.
If you acquire the white rot disease it may take a few years to see noticeable symptoms so it's best to not take the chance and keep your soil clean.
We are working on trying to eliminate or reduce the disease using organic methods, and have had good success in keeping symptoms to a minimum by using a special fungal powder and mycorrhizae at planting time. In 2019 through 2022 we had no garlic with obvious symptoms of white rot. That doesn't mean it is gone, since the spores persist in the soil for up to 20 years, and symptoms aren't always apparent. We still find occasional bulbs with garlic nematodes, which isn't as serious, but is definitely something to avoid.
