Garlic, perhaps surpassed only by apples, is a true love of mine. All I ask of this life is that there be soft, gentle soils in which to plant garlic every autumn. I have a nemesis, though: the allium leaf miner, whose maggot loves to tunnel deep into the bulb before pupating in a tiny, brittle mahogany case.
It doesn't just take down my garlic, but onions and leeks, too. It's not dissimilar to the havoc wreaked by the leek moth. I have been teasing the leaf miner for years, trying to make life difficult, so it leaves at least some of my precious crop alone. Onions and leeks, left unprotected, are in tatters before long, but garlic tends to survive, although it is greatly reduced in size. A winter spent peeling tiny cloves, flicking the brown cases as you go, is frustrating and often ends with calls of, "Can't we just buy garlic!" which breaks my heart a little.
Last year, I grew garlic in a wild flower patch to confuse the female fly as she tried to lay her eggs. Some of the crop was attacked, but most was not (the same works for leeks). I thought I'd repeat this with clover to see if I could improve yields.
Garlic is not a fan of competition, but I was hoping that cutting the clover would minimise this, and that its nitrogen-fixing roots would feed the garlic. Mostly I was hoping that the allium leaf miner fly would be confused by the clover's dense mat of growth. The experiment was partly successful, too. The miner got less than 5%, but the garlic in the middle of the plot struggled with competition, despite the regular clover cuts. However, the garlic to the edge was the best I have ever grown. 'Cristo' and 'Solent', both softneck varieties, came out as fat, healthy bulbs with no sign of damage. The thick cover kept the soil continually damp, even in the dry weather, and it grew luxuriant leaves far stronger than the garlic grown without competition.
I'm not sure how I will replicate this: perhaps clover paths beside the beds or by sowing a band of clover around the garlic. I may try sowing the clover late in spring, so there is no initial competition.
However, the best protection remains covering the crop with fine-knit Enviromesh or Veggiemesh. Garlic must be covered before March, when the first fly is on the wing (April for leek moths). I use low hoops to keep the mesh floating, otherwise it is just heavy enough to thwart growth. Make sure every edge is well secured, because the female fly is adept at finding holes. This method works as well for leek moth, and for onions and leeks, though it pains me to look upon an allotment shrouded in mesh. Hence my experiments in confusion.
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