I had a problem with both leek moth and nematode damage in the garlic and onions. I have been kindly loaned a slightly raised bed about 6 inches built up no border in a spot with no previous history of alliums decent soil and sun. There are 2 large black walnuts the garden is just at the edge of the drip line .
I am only a backyard girl planting about 150 cloves ?
I have good clean seed would you plant here ???
Ginny Pearce , Dundas
I was speaking to a farmer in our area that had a problem with nematodes making themselves at home in his garlic. His solution was to plant a cover crop of mustard, in the summer. He would then disk the mustard right before it flowered. He would then plant the garlic in the covered cropped area in the fall. He told me that the mustard acts a bio-fumigant. That farmer no longer has nematode problems in his garlic.
I have a large patch of accidental garlic seedlings directly under a short row of fairly mature black walnuts. The only thing affecting the crop is the fact that they are in the shade and that I don’t thin them (small bulbs). I harvest the seedlings in the spring as green garlic for restaurants and my farmers market. The garlic spreads aggressively under the black walnut. To say garlic tolerates black walnut is an understatement. I am sorry I did not see the post earlier so that I could have said:“Go for it!”.
This is our experience as well! Garlic loves Black Walnuts’ as do black cap raspberry and Paw Paw!