Garlic Leaves Turning Yellow?

[Stepnout]

I posted earlier this spring about growing garlic for the first time. It seems to me something is not quite right with my Hard Neck Porcelain Music garlic. The leaves are starting to yellow, see the pictures bellow. It is no where close to being time to harvest where I live and the garlic have 5-6 leaves and no scapes are starting to form.
My research brings me to several conditions that may cause the leaves to yellow:
1) Frost damage...I don't think we've had any frost!
2) Too much rain or wet ground. I wouldn't consider this location to be wet.
3) Disease from previous garlic or onions. Have never grown onions in 39 years and never garlic.
4)Nitrogen shortage. I used bone or blood meal when I planted last fall and applied some 10-10-10 3 weeks ago. I also watered with some Miracle grow 20-20-20 five days ago as I was seeing leaves starting to yellow.
5) I also see where too much Phosphate can create yellow leaves. Last year I sent a soil sample away and one of the things noted is my soil in this garden has both medium high phosphate and calcium. A search on the web suggests to use a fertilizer with low or zero phosphate. Over the years I have used manure from Cow, hoarse and my chickens. All are high in phosphate.
6)Onion maggots, wire worms. Wire worms I have and plenty of them. I think I'll dig a few plants up and look for wire worm damage.

Please have a look at the pictures and let me know what your thoughts are on the colour!
Best Regards
Wayne
PS: I've pulled back some of the mulch a week ago looking for slugs and bugs. I don't see anything obvious.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

What zone are you in? Did you plant it last fall?

 

[Stepnout]

What zone are you in? Did you plant it last fall?

I am in zone 5B and I planted it in October. I ordered it from
Vesey‘s Seeds. They specialize in seeds for this area.
Another reason I pulled back the mulch I was thinking maybe it was too wet but I don’t feel this this to be the case.
Here is a link for the garlic I purchased.
https://www.veseys.com/ca/porcelaingarlic.html

 

[Stepnout]

You folks were so kind to help with my original garlic post. Do you have any suggestions?
@1muttsfan
@Trish1974
@Sally PB
@MissE

Thanks a bunch
Wayne

 

[Sally PB]

@Stepnout ... hmmm. I think your garlic looks about like mine, as far as size. I have Music, and I'm in zone 5B too.

You might be onto something with high phosphorus; can you get a soil test to see if that's a problem? This is what I found when I looked up high phosphorus symptoms in plants:

"Burning of leaf tip or margins. Bronzing, yellowing and leaf splitting. Reduced leaf size and lower growth rate."

Excess P can make iron and zinc unavailable to the plant through the soil, but you can use a foliar spray to help. (Again, just what I've read; never done that.)

As far as the scapes go, I don't get those until late June. If you're suspecting insect pests, dig up one or two of the worst affected bulbs to look. The bulbs won't be very big yet, so don't worry about that.

Let us know what you find!

 

[Stepnout]

You might be onto something with high phosphorus; can you get a soil test to see if that's a problem?

Yes I had a soil test last year. I have 2 good size gardens. The one in question has been used for many years. I have amended my soil with manure, leaves, grass, wood chips, for over 39years. Not every year of course. Loom at the attached test results and you can see the garden noted as House is very high in P
Also take note of the recommended NPK 120-90-90!
so I should not be using 10-10-10 or 20-20-20. That maybe it. I’ll have to go to a farm store and buy a higher nitrogen fertilizer for this field.
I’ll go out now and check a few bulbs for insect damage

 

[Sally PB]

The calcium and magnesium are very high. Could that be part of the problem?

Just curious... a lot of the numbers have no designation of low or high. Any idea why? I've never gotten a test done, so I'm not familiar with how to read them.

 

[Stepnout]

Yes I see the other high numbers but I thing that is just the way the soil is here. The P is likely from the manure I’ve used over the years.
I believe the high calcium is the result of the lime i seed over the years to bring the PH up it is 20% calcium
http://www.brookvillelime.com/product-items/dolomitic-lime/

 

[Stepnout]

Looking closely at my report I see my soil in both gardens show .5 and .6 ppm of Boron. The research I've done points to yellowing of the tips of plant leaves and hollow heart in Turnips, rutabaga's and beets. I frequently have hollow heart in my rutabagas. Some of the university extensions in the US show many crops needing AMAZING AMOUNTS OF MORE BORON THAN MY FIELDS HAVE! It may be time to break out the MULE team Borax!
I also see I may need Zink added as my levels are 4.4 and 10.5 ppm.

Table 2. Sufficiency levels of zinc for major agronomic crops, vegetables, and fruits grown in Minnesota​

Crop	Plant part	Time	Sufficiency range (ppm)
Alfalfa	Tops (6" new growth)	Prior to flowering	21-70
Apple	Leaf from middle of current terminal shoot	July 15-August 15	20-50
Blueberry	Young mature leaf	First week of harvest	25-60
Broccoli	Young mature leaf	Heading	20-80
Cabbage	Half-grown young wrapper leaf	Heads	20-200
Carrot	Young mature leaf	Mid-growth	25-250
Cauliflower	Young mature leaf	Buttoning	20-250
Edible bean	Most recently matured trifoliate	Bloom stage	15-80
Field corn	Whole tops	Less than 12" tall	20-70
	Base of ear	Initial silk	20-70
Grape	Petiole from young mature leaf	Flowering	20-45
Pea	Recently matured leaflet	First bloom	25-100
Potato	Fourth leaf from tip	40-50 days after emergence	20-40
	Petiole from fourth leaf to tip	40-50 days after emergence	20-40
Raspberry	Leaf 18" from tip	First week in August	15-60
Soybean	Trifoliate leaves	Early flowering	21-80
Spring wheat	Whole tops	As head emerges from boot	15-70
Strawberry	Young mature leaf	Mid-August	20-50
Sweet corn	Ear leaf	Tasseling to silk	20-100
Sugar beet	Recently matured leaves	50-80 days after planting	10-80

 

[1muttsfan]

I would say if your soil is high in Calcium that bone meal or lime would be contraindicated, while it will raise the soil pH it will also increase your calcium levels. You may be on to something with the Phosphorus.

The 120-90-90 is recommended application amount in kilograms of supplement per hectare (that equals 264 pounds of Nitrogen, 198# of Phosphate, and 198# of Potash per hectare). The numbers on the fertilizer bag are the ratio of the ingredients, based on % by weight, not the amount in weight of each. Which you could easily get by multiplying the ratio number times the weight of the bag.

There are 11959 square yards in a hectare, so you are looking at applying .022/.016/.016 pounds of each to each square yard of garden, if that helps.

I never mulch right around the base of alliums, just along between the rows if I do any at all, to avoid moisture issues, and as alliums like the bulbs to be close to the surface.