[viettaclark]

Sorry if I'm boring everyone with this but it's never-ending and I'm shell-shocked, covered in rust (that's apt then) and soaked to the skin again!
Having said my Music (yes....the real Music) was upright and green but rusted I had a closer look. Should've gone to SpecSavers 
The healthy green was scapes which I hadn't noticed and must've grown like the clappers so I broke all those off and when I tried tidying up the slimy rusty foliage whole plants were coming up in my hand.....I went over the bed tugging the plants......some bulbs had completely disappeared (where?), some with roots missing and knobbly brown bits and some starting to go brown. The haulms were a bit smelly soft and slimy on these whereas the other stalks were more turgid.
The bulbs are only a couple of cms wide and not properly formed yet.
What has caused this devastation and should I pull up the ones that are still securely anchored tout suite?
I have been growing garlic for years and have never ever had such bad luck.
And I've never seen so much rain.......

[mumofstig]

were any of them mouldy at the base of the bulb?

[Kajazy]

Sorry if I'm boring everyone with this but it's never-ending and I'm shell-shocked, covered in rust (that's apt then) and soaked to the skin again!
Having said my Music (yes....the real Music) was upright and green but rusted I had a closer look. Should've gone to SpecSavers 
The healthy green was scapes which I hadn't noticed and must've grown like the clappers so I broke all those off and when I tried tidying up the slimy rusty foliage whole plants were coming up in my hand.....I went over the bed tugging the plants......some bulbs had completely disappeared (where?), some with roots missing and knobbly brown bits and some starting to go brown. The haulms were a bit smelly soft and slimy on these whereas the other stalks were more turgid.
The bulbs are only a couple of cms wide and not properly formed yet.
What has caused this devastation and should I pull up the ones that are still securely anchored tout suite?
I have been growing garlic for years and have never ever had such bad luck.
And I've never seen so much rain.......

Do you have any white rot on your plot, or could you have imported it somehow? I do, and it sounds a bit like that. Do any of the roots/bases have tiny black spheres (sclerotia)? It's worth checking...

[viettaclark]

Mum...there was a hardish mid-brown rough growth like a canker in the base of a some that had no roots but no black anywhere. When I rubbed at the canker it came off taking the inside of the bulb out.
Could it be the rust and rain rotting them? I can't think of a pest unless it's one that eats the whole bulb and roots and leaves nothing. I found no visible remains of bulbs or roots.

[mumofstig]

I found onions/leek/garlic that just pulled up with no roots and they had white fluffy mould at the roots, some of the bulbs half rotted away. I assumed some kind of basal rot/onion white rot?

I suppose if you left it long enough the whole bulb would rot away, specially with this awful weather 

I've never seen a brown canker type growth on them but don't think it would be because of rust 

So, sorry can't help there. Perhaps grow them on a ridge next year to help with drainage? That might help.................

[viettaclark]

Deffo no fluffy mould of any colour, just this brown gnarly lump at the bottom of the bulb.
I'll make sure I crop rotate and I'm destroying the bad ones in case......!