GA: Onions horrible, all dying / several already dead :(((

Alas!  Onions horrible, all dying / several already dead :(((  Pretty sure it's due to the leek moth.  (Though I poked around in some of the dying/dead "green"s and didn't find anything but I'm guessing they've already left or whatever.)

Even the covered ones, because (a) one of the covers developed a large gaping hole a 4-6ish weeks ago that I never bothered doing anything about, and (b) the other covered area I had removed the cover for a week or twoish a while ago (because I think it too had broken) before deciding to put back the cover.  So I'm pretty sure the leek moth got all up in both of the covered onion beds.

But yeah, basically all onions look awful with thoroughly dead/dying "green"s (more like "brown"s).  And, a surprising amount flopped over / got the crick in the neck which means they won't grow any more, yet they're very small. Harvested some of the worst today.  I mean, there's still a mini harvest as they did bulb up to varying extents, but definitely small small small.  Some others not yet harvested are relatively bigger but still doesn't look like any will grow to nice sizes.

So!  Next year I will grow all onions under proper cover for the whole season.  (Except maybe one foot uncovered as a comparison.)

Leek moth damage (and a worm) in the green onion tops

Dang, never noticed this before on green onions.  But as I was inspecting the window-pane damage at the kitchen sink, and slitting the green onions to inspect the insides, I found a teeny worm.

No leek moths on garlic this year

Never saw any sign of them this year.  The main bed by the hydro meter was under tulle so that makes sense, but even the north bed (uncovered) I never noticed anything, and the bulbs look healthy when I harvested them today (small, but intact / nice looking).

A few more leek moths found in garlic past few days

Including one today.

3 more leek moth caterpillars in garlic; scapes are coming out (some destroyed)

I found the caterpillars by looking for new damage.

Scapes are coming out.

Some of the scapes I destroyed/removed while removing the caterpillars.  Wonder if they'll produce.  According to this article, they should be fine... https://www.thestar.com/life/2017/07/14/new-research-says-removing-scapes-will-improve-your-garlic-yield.html

14 leek moth caterpillars found in garlic!! Must look at the very NEWEST leaves, down close to the center.

What did I say yesterday?  Too funny!  Turns out I wasn't checking close in enough to the main growing stem.  Almost all the garlics had at least one caterpillar, some had more than one.

Removed the parts where they were living in, which in some cases might have been a young scape, not sure, but the leaf was tubular.

No sign of leek moth on garlic yet

Have been checking.... of course now that I write this post, I'm sure to find some tomorrow!

An onion had leek moth, but no caterpillars found in dissection

One of the onions in the garlic patch clearly had some leek moth eggs/caterpillars hatch and enter the "leave"s.  Pulled the onion, sliced it apart carefully -- and didn't find any caterpillars inside.  Bottom-most stem seemed totally intact.  Re-planted it.

Found another leek moth caterpillar/worm on garlic

Found one today, but haven't found any in recent days so hopefully the "season" is almost over. 

More garlic worms found today and past occasional days

Found several more leek moth worms in the garlic today as well as occasionally during the past several days.  Some plants are still completely unaffected.  Will see if the affected ones will produce.

Leek moth caterpillsars found in garlic!!!

Oh no!  Armed with the knowledge from yesterday's video, I had a closer look this morning.  Sure enough, about 6 or 7 garlics had the telltale signs, and when I looked closely I found a caterpillar in each.  Relocated them.

Last year a similar thing happened, but later in the season when the scapes were longer, and those plants ended up surviving/producing.  So, fingers crossed.

Good video about leek moth (re: garlic)

Have been looking at garlics daily and haven't noticed anything, though I wasn't sure what I was looking for.  Now having seen this handy video, will know what to look for.

https://slideplayer.com/slide/1739028/