White Rot: A Garlic Disease

The benefits that garlic provides are wonderful, but unfortunately, garlic fails to protect itself from certain diseases such as white rot. White rot disease, Sclerotium cepivorum, is the most common, destructive, and widespread disease that affects the plants in the Allium family such as garlic.

The white rot disease, which is a soil-borne fungus, is temperature dependant. It only attacks garlic when the soil temperature is between 10º-20º Celsius. Infected soil spreads the disease to many garlic plants that are planted near the infected soil. Also, once soil becomes infected, getting rid of the white rot disease is extremely difficult because the disease survives in the soil for at least 15 years. Therefore, long gaps between planting garlic in the same soil effectively protect white rot disease from spreading.

White rot disease can spread in many ways. The most common way is when the infected soil on plants is carried to another location and infects the soil in the new location. Contaminated soil on boots and garden tools also spreads the disease. Rarely, animals’ manure spreads white rot disease after animals eat the affected garlic plant.

According to a Garlic Diseases Website,

“Symptoms include premature yellowing and dying of older leaves, stunting, and leaf tipburn, followed by destruction of the root system, shoot dieback, and rotting of the bulb.”

Since garlic provides so many health benefits, it is important to prevent white rot disease from contaminating garlic plants.