How to Treat Wild Garlic

Tuesday July 07, 2009 - Wild Garlic is a "cool-season" perennial weed common in the Southeast. Although it's a close relative to the types cultivated in your garden, Wild Garlic is very undesirable when it starts appearing in your turf. Wild Garlic has slender, hollow, tubular leaves and will produce small, greenish-white flowers. You will recognize Wild Garlic by the distinctive garlic aroma when you crush a bulb. Wild Garlic reproduces by seeds, aerial bulbils and through its underground, tuberous root system.

This perennial will appear in the early spring and late fall, and it's hard to completely eradicate unless you dig it all out. For small problems, this is the best solution. You must take care to remove all of the roots and bulbs.

For larger infestations, there are herbicides available. However, because Wild Garlic has a tough outer casing on its leaves, herbicides have a difficult time sticking to them. Herbicides will damage, control and reduce Wild Garlic, but will not eradicate. Wild Garlic should be dug out whenever possible, and if caught at first appearance will not become a major problem.

(Although Wild Onions are not mentioned in this article, the same set of problems and solutions would apply.)