Taking the covers off the 2019 garlic crop

This years garlic has been under cover since planting.
The aim is to protect it from the winter westerlies, and to see if it has an effect on rust.
A few plants have ended up growing outside the cover and I'm using these as a 'control' to see if there is any difference.

   

When I took the covers off, the first thing I noticed was that the plants have been bent by the cover.
I'm thinking of buying taller frames for next year.

There is a bad patch of rust halfway down the bed. Planted here was a small group of stiff neck variety.
Each year that I've grown garlic, the rust mainly hits in December, so it doesn't have a big impact on the growth of the garlic.
None of the garlic that was outside the cover was effected by rust.

The rest of the crop is looking good, but the rust is spreading out from that small patch in the middle.

  

I pruned off infected leaves and burnt them.