Garlic dry rot (Allium sativum L.)

The disease in the spotlight today is garlic dry rot, a manifestation of fusarium, the fungal infection that affects agricultural production worldwide. 

Dear farmers, are diseases and adversities hampering the productivity and profitability of your farms? Is the environment no longer the cradle of your plans, but the hell of your aspirations? 

If you want to come out of this, you must abandon the idea of medicine that cures.

The proliferation of bacteria, fungi, viruses, insects, constantly threatens plants because the abuse of chemicals and unsuitable products, i.e. those unable to respect biological balances, has generated serious consequences for crops and the environment, causing the weakening of plants' natural defences, alterations in soil microflora, populations of resistant pathogens, toxicity, contamination of soil, water and air, and more.

A colleague of yours writes to us asking if BioAksxter® can cure garlic fusarium.

Causes of garlic dry rot

Let us state at the outset that fusariosis is the manifestation in plant tissue of the fungal infection caused by pathogenic fungi of the Fusarium genus (Fusarium spp). The infection persists mainly affecting soil that is now unproductive and close to becoming sterile, where the plants certainly cannot find a way to grow and develop as they should.

The consequences for these crops are:

• the spread of the causal fungal agent of garlic dry rot in the growing environment in terms of the severity of the disease on the plants
• the sharp reduction in yields in terms of quantity and quality
• production damage due to typical bulb dry rot, more specifically garlic dry rot

The inoculum load of the fungus Fusarium spp. now counteracts even the best agronomic practices such as removal of crop residues, proper irrigation water supplies and adequate soil drainage, use of healthy propagation material and clean substrates for greenhouse crops, and control of abiotic stresses. In short, the soil is infected. Consequently, infected plants. Moreover, climate mutations have allied themselves against all attempts and promises, not only with regard to garlic but also all other crops.

Those who rely on university research or promoting bodies waste time and get nowhere. The benefit is in the money of those who work on the identification and analysis of causes and context, without getting anywhere, as has always been the case. Innovation is just an empty word. Since everything is geared towards ‘eating away at it’, the hopeful or misguided farmer will be left with his initial problems and those that will have been added in the meantime, especially economically.

This is my experience. This is reality.

Bulb dry rot also affects garlic

Dry rot is the most widespread disease of garlic worldwide and the one that affects production the most, with losses exceeding 30%.

Italy, Europe's second largest producer after Spain, finds itself on the one hand with specifications that speak one way and on the other hand with the reality of changing ecological conditions.

Garlic dry rot occurs, either during the growing season or post-harvest in the processing and storage phase, with the formation of more or less extensive brown spots on the bulb, crown and roots, and with the bulbs emptying.

The impact of the growing conditions of the crop on the development of the pathogen is important, but equally important is the spread of the fungal agent that causes garlic dry rot through bulb handling and processing operations. So, whether garlic is intended for consumption or propagation, the issue of seed health is crucial.

It only takes a few spores to start spreading the disease. In garlic-grown soil, fusarium persists for many years, even affecting various structures, tools and machinery with mycelium and spores ready to carry the infection to plant tissue. 

The two most feared species are F. oxysporum and F. proliferatum, the latter being found more frequently, especially in post-harvest.

Garlic dry rot: symptoms to recognise, prevention actions to take

While we wonder about the conditions conducive to the resurgence of infection by the pathogen, the symptoms to be recognised and the preventive actions to be taken, garlic affected by dry rot arrives on our tables and then another question arises: when we buy garlic (but this applies to any agricultural product) are we aware of what treatments it has undergone and the possible effects on our health?

Efficacy evaluation aside, the chain of garlic production, processing, storage and marketing delivers us inevitable health repercussions in place of garlic's health properties. Let's talk about:

• use of chemical fungicides for disinfection of bulbils against fusarium infection such as Propiconazole, Azoxystrobin, Fluopyram, Prochloraz, Tebuconazole or biological fungicides such as B. subtilis, S. griseoviridis, T. harzianum, T. gamsii
• use of chemical fungicides against other types of fungal diseases
• use of plant protection products against pests and diseases
• use of pesticides against pests (spider mites, nematodes, mites) and insects
• use of detergents and disinfectants

So much for those who claim that garlic is the pharmacist of humanity.

The new strategy to control fungal infections: how to solve garlic dry rot

Garlic for consumption and propagation (seed garlic)? Whatever the cultivation, a new fungal infection control strategy is needed.

Our advanced technology, and I am talking about the patented BioAksxter® formulations that rely on the energy input of computerised hydro-compressed magnetic charges, safeguards crop profitability because:

• rebuilds the compromised balance of plant and soil;
• heals the soil (depollutes, regenerates, revitalises) and strengthens crops by making them functionally responsive;
• prevents and solves the basic problem of garlic dry rot;
• prevents the spread of disease in the presence of contaminated propagation material;
• results in a healthy, fusarium-free seed, restoring profitability to the garlic crop.

Plant energy reprogrammed with BioAksxter® is able to inhibit the production of mycotoxins and control the growth of the pathogen on Allium sativum L. seedlings both through the remediation of the cultivation environment and during processing and storage until consumption, thus relieving the attribution of the disease to mechanical damage in seed preparation as a route of infection.

BioAksxter® constitutes an innovative strategy right from seed treatment and being free of harmful effects and environmental impact and restoring the natural balance from field to table is in fact the best ally for the entire agricultural chain.