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- Super Green Thumb
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- Joined: Sun Mar 28, 2010 11:43 pm
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- Super Green Thumb
- Posts: 6113
- Joined: Sun Mar 28, 2010 11:43 pm
Wow. You guys get frost this early on the island? I wouldn't have guessed that.
So, is all the labor there - the mulch and the cardboard - to protect the garlic from low temps or to keep the weeds at bay? We just poke ours into freshly tilled ground in late September and forget about them until spring.
So, is all the labor there - the mulch and the cardboard - to protect the garlic from low temps or to keep the weeds at bay? We just poke ours into freshly tilled ground in late September and forget about them until spring.
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- Super Green Thumb
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- Joined: Sun Mar 28, 2010 11:43 pm
Not bad sir, glad I got a look at that!
I didn't know you could leave the cloves that fr out of the ground. I always just barely bury mine. My garlic from you did great btw! I'm looking forward to planting the second round on the next day I get a chance...
I have been mulching heavily with straw in the fall and letting it go on it's own accord until spring. This year though, thanks to the new job, I have access to all the shredded paper I can use! So I'm thinking about using that as mulch. I'm also considering making a 4ftx8ft bed just for worms since I have moved everything to raised beds anyways.
I didn't know you could leave the cloves that fr out of the ground. I always just barely bury mine. My garlic from you did great btw! I'm looking forward to planting the second round on the next day I get a chance...
I have been mulching heavily with straw in the fall and letting it go on it's own accord until spring. This year though, thanks to the new job, I have access to all the shredded paper I can use! So I'm thinking about using that as mulch. I'm also considering making a 4ftx8ft bed just for worms since I have moved everything to raised beds anyways.
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- Super Green Thumb
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- Joined: Sun Mar 28, 2010 11:43 pm
Thanks Jeff.
The cardboard is a little more work up front but I'm hoping it will pay off in the end. I was a little concerned that the garlic might be floating above the soil, but also thinking as the cardboard gets waterlogged it will lay flat.
I pulled back some of the horse manure straw this morning. Looks like they are doing fine so far. I'm now concerned that the cardboard may girdle the bulbs. Hopefully by Spring the cardboard will be very soft and willing to move as the bulbs expand.
The worms seem to like the set up too. Many worms in the manure compost above the cardboard.
Eric
The cardboard is a little more work up front but I'm hoping it will pay off in the end. I was a little concerned that the garlic might be floating above the soil, but also thinking as the cardboard gets waterlogged it will lay flat.
I pulled back some of the horse manure straw this morning. Looks like they are doing fine so far. I'm now concerned that the cardboard may girdle the bulbs. Hopefully by Spring the cardboard will be very soft and willing to move as the bulbs expand.
The worms seem to like the set up too. Many worms in the manure compost above the cardboard.
Eric
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I think it'll be fine. I put down cardboard to set my winter indoor tomato seedlings on -- I think it was late Aug/early Sept -- and two garlic that I must have missed grew up through the cardboard in the fall (Oct). If the worms are already active now, I doubt the garlic will have any problems pushing their girth.
Actually, and I may be wrong, but I don't believe the bulb expands per se. I pulled one way early one time to kind of get a feel for what happens as they are developing, and what I think I saw was that when the clove starts growing, a shoot comes out of the top and the root system AND a stalk push out of the bottom. So what you end up with is the new bulb growing about 2" underneath the clove you planted. So theoretically, even if the clove was "floating" or Girdled, I think it would be fine.
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