Garlic. 2020

[pepperhead212]

The garlic is in! I uncovered the row this morning - I had a 4' wide piece of black plastic on the row since sometime in August, to solarize it, and I found the strangest thing - some onions growing! And right near the middle, not along the edges. Absolutely nothing else was growing, just 3 clusters of these bleached onions:
Bleached onions, from under black plastic! Only plants living under there, after 3 months of solarization. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

After 'tilling, I smoothed out the row, and ran the cord down the center, to plant on both sides of. I had 51 Italian Reds, 58 Metechis, 19 Montana Giants (only a half pound, and definitely the largest cloves!), and 67 Estonian Reds (only had 60 originally, with a bunch of the smallest set aside, and I got 7 of those, to fill the last 2 feet or so of the row.
Garlic is in! 195 cloves, 11-4-2019 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Garlic row - line removed, and smoothed over, ready for the mulch! by pepperhead212, on Flickr

The Estonian red was the smallest this year, which is unusual. I set aside about 3 oz of smaller cloves, then got what looked like the largest 7 of them, to finish off the row. Those Italian Reds were very large, and Montana Giant was, well, giant! I was wondering if some of the largest Italian and Montana cloves were those "twin cloves", but when peeled, they were just huge single cloves.

So who else is planting their garlic, and what are you growing?

[applestar]

Ha! Wouldn’t you know I did the opposite of what you did this year, even though I tend to plant garlic around this time of the year most of the time.

>> I decided to try planting them near Columbus Day which is supposed to be the recommended time for this area and which I have consistently failed to meet as the garlic planting day. The idea is to give them about a month before the ground freezes to establish roots and barely start growing their tops (less than 4 inches is ideal). So I hustled this year to be sure to try planting early (other logistical reasons were involved too, but anyway )

Subject: Applestar’s 2019 Garden
Oct 09, 2019

I bought the growers select organic sampler 1 lbs from Keene. They sent Korean Red, Majestic Porcelain, and Romanian Red Porcelain. All of them are new to me so it will be fun to find out what they are like.
[...]
I used the pre-soak method described in the planting instructions that they included — peroxide, then liquid fert mixed with baking soda. I used the cultured bokashi compost leacheate and weed green juice, and for good measure aerated some more green juice and added to the pre-soaking mixture, and aerated them while they were soaking.

Ended up with 7 largest cloves of each variety in these raised black plastic mulched rows in VGC (Vegetable Gardenbed C), with 6 holes and 4 holes left over for something else (actually I will be cutting 2nd row of holes later). The holes are 6 inches on the center apart. I sowed the smaller 4 Korean Red and 2 Majestic Porcelain cloves in the Kitchen Garden. (Romanian Red Porcelain cloves were huge and numbered less per bulb, so no extras to sow after saving 2 or 3 smallest cloves for tasting).

Subject: Applestar’s 2019 Garden
Oct 31, 2019

I noticed today that the garlic have started to sprout. I think they are on track since we have possibly hard frost coming this weekend.

...This is going to be interesting to compare results. ALTHOUGH you tend to take care of your garden better than I do so Mine might be at an disadvantage anyway.... Are you running irrigation lines? VGC Bed is downslope from a small roof gutter downspout and the two raised mounds form a valley/trough/swale that hopefully will help supplement irrigation and hopefully will not end up becoming a cause for soggy/rot. I’m using black plastic mulch and insect mesh hoops which may or may not be double- or triple-layered on top later with vented 3-mil and/or fleece — all of which will be new methods for me this year.

[imafan26]

I was one day late planting garlic. I usually plant onions and garlic on October 25 and I ended up doing it on October 26 th instead. It has been warmer than usual for this time of the year so maybe I could be even later this year. I saw a few of the garlic have started to show the leaves above ground. The onions are all standing up. That is always a good sign. I just have to remember to start the MG feedings once all of them have come up.