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minaku_gw

Garlic pests and scapes

Minaku
18 years ago

Hi everyone, I'm Minaku, and I'm new to growing garlic.

I noticed that my garlic was growing shoots, so I planted one clove in a smallish container (a half-gallon, maybe?). It's been a couple of weeks and it's grown 15 inches high.

I tried not to overwater, but it seems like I've done it anyway. There are tiny little white worms, looks like fungus gnats maybe, in the soil. Should I kill these guys, and if I do, will it harm the garlic and make it unfit to eat?

Also, when can I use the scapes in cooking? I'm dying to try them. :) Thanks for your help.

Comments (6)

  • paquebot
    18 years ago

    Killing the fungus gnats won't hurt anything. I use "Stiky Strips" for fungus gnats in the house but it's not cost effective for a single plant.

    If you just planted one clove, you'd only get one scape. However, if you planted supermarket garlic, it's about a 99% chance that you won't get any! Most of that garlic would be a softneck variety which normally doesn't sent up a scape. Thus you wouldn't have any scape at all to enjoy. A bummer, eh?

    Martin

  • ksrogers
    18 years ago

    Another product that works well for fungus gnats and fungus maggots is a form of Bt. This stuff is mixed with water and is a used as a soil drench. The yellow sticky traps are cheap enough, and a pack of 10 pads are under $6.00 and are two usually sided. These are also useful for white flies I set one pad on the edge of a pot horizontally so it will lay flat and the bugs like to land on it. If your plant is indoors, you may have the same gnats infesting all your plants. They do much harm in that once they lay eggs and once these hatch, they feed on the roots of the plants which weakens and kills the plants. There is a product called Gnatrol that works well to rid the soils of these maggots, and the sticky pads are used to help reduce reinfestaions and infections in other soils that the gnats fly to.

  • Minaku
    Original Author
    18 years ago

    So those white grub-like things with lots of legs and two small antennae are the fungus maggots? I do get a lot of gnats, I keep killing them. I think they rode in on the lavender I bought from a nursery nearby - damn thing was swarming with gnats. I kill at least three every day when I go to check on my plants.

    Bt it is... is there a specific product you would recommend?

    I just bought a new potting soil by Bayer with Merit insecticide in it. If I repot my seedlings and plants that need repotting with this new soil, will it work to kill these bugs?

  • ksrogers
    18 years ago

    BT, is in may strains. The one I know of for the gnats is called Gnatrol. Its mixed with water and used as a soil drench. As mentioned before, the yellow plastic sticky pads also seem to catch a lot of the gnats, whereas the Gnatrol is for the maggots in the soil.

  • garyeh
    16 years ago

    I've got these little black bugs on my chives and Garlic.

    What are they?

    Thanks and Best Regards,
    Gary

  • kchase
    13 years ago

    Hi All!
    I have these little gray bugs that jump like fleas in my garden. They swarm the soil when I try to weed my garlic section. Does anyone know what they are or how to get rid of them?? HELP!!