Transatlantic Garlic Project

mama_lor
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Re: Transatlantic Garlic Project

#21

Post: # 51678Unread post mama_lor
Tue Aug 03, 2021 4:02 am

I noticed something about neck bulbils of softneck garlic, and I don't see this mentioned anywhere. They are basically scapes that grow but only short, they stop at some point and just make the bulbils there. So I would call softenck as 'potentially short hardneck garlic'. ;)
I had it this year on both Germidour and Messidrome. Quite annoying really, since you can't remove them like you can fully grown scapes.
Messidrome has been for me a great variety, germidour is just much more fussy about anything, it doesn't like the summer heat, and splits the wrappers easily. Also messidrome keeps great, easily into april. The taste is just average however.

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bower
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Re: Transatlantic Garlic Project

#22

Post: # 52191Unread post bower
Fri Aug 13, 2021 8:00 pm

Here are the late scaping ones from Sari: Lautrec and Kolkja Purple.
They didn't gain a lot in size this year, but Kolkja Purple did produce several very large rounds, so those may jump start some full size bulbs next year. In any case they are growing up faster than the others in that family which I grew out ( Persian Star and Chesnok Red) so I'm well pleased.
Lautrec is a real surprise. I've been planting them in fall with the others, and they don't seem to mind it a bit. :) They are just as big as the Kolkja Purple. I have to remember to take these up when the leaves say so, as this year they had some cloves outside the main bulb without a wrapper. Not a problem since they're for planting anyway. They didn't produce any rounds this time, and no real pattern in clove numbers which I've seen in others, that is the conditions in a certain year may cause them to make bulbs with many or fewer cloves. Lautrec has both types this year, as well as a number with the odd clove outside the main wrapper.
2021KolkjaPLautrec514.JPG
I will also mention that I decided to spring plant the Ziemiai and Topinky which were down to two rounds each, instead of the perils of the garlic beds. I put them in a garden bed near the house which gets some watering and attention. They were so late emerging though - not until midsummer! that they are still green and not at all ready to be moved. I'm thinking to give them a 'feral' year, that is, leave them in the ground and let them overwinter undisturbed, to produce some bulbs next season. Other garlics that were left to sort themselves out eventually got comfortable and large after a few years - this is how I got Bonavista. I think it is a gentler way to let them adapt to our climate. What do you think?
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AgCan Zone 5a/USDA zone 4
temperate marine climate
yearly precip 61 inches/1550 mm

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bower
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Re: Transatlantic Garlic Project

#23

Post: # 52203Unread post bower
Sat Aug 14, 2021 6:08 am

I was just looking again, to compare the climate conditions in our two places. Our temperature regimes year round are almost identical, and so is the growing season, very similar or just the same. Even the amount of solar energy is quite similar, in spite of the difference in day lengths.
What is really different and significant for garlic is the precipitation. We are windier too but they really don't care about that. :lol:
We get more precip overall and most of it is in fall and winter, with dryer conditions during the growing season. I do water them in summer if it gets overly dry, so that doesn't count, it can only be the winter. We get a mixture of snow and rain during those months, so quite a lot of wet thaws, compared to your relatively dry winter with mainly snow. So this is probably the best explanation of those varieties that didn't adapt quickly to my climate from yours. Maybe this is something for you to look out for [mention]svalli[/mention] in case climate change brings you more rain in the winter. We have certainly had some very wet winters since this project started, and that was the hardest on some varieties but others have tolerated it really well. :)
https://weatherspark.com/y/29672/Averag ... Year-Round
https://weatherspark.com/y/87765/Averag ... Year-Round
AgCan Zone 5a/USDA zone 4
temperate marine climate
yearly precip 61 inches/1550 mm

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svalli
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Re: Transatlantic Garlic Project

#24

Post: # 52310Unread post svalli
Mon Aug 16, 2021 12:25 am

Looks good Bower. That Lautrec is a creole, which seem to be tricky to grow in areas with cold winters. They tend to make those big outer cloves without wrapper. I have an other creole named Morado, which has usually formed scapes, but this year most of them grew like softnecks with the weird shape as Lautrec. I think that I will stop trying to grow the creoles.

I have never intentionally left bulbils in the ground, because I grow those in containers. I do not have good place to grow the bulbils undisturbed. I know many people do it, but I would be afraid of loosing those to weeds and varieties getting mixed.

I grow garlic actually in the field in Alajärvi and only bulbils in Vaasa. Alajärvi is 120 km inland, so it has a bit colder winters and hotter summers than in Vaasa, where sea evens the temperature fluctuation. South side of Finland is getting the same problem as you with winters being wet and mild. Last winter some had garlic start to grow in December and then the shoots froze in February.
"I only want to live in peace, plant potatoes and dream."
- Moomin-troll by Tove Jansson

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bower
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Re: Transatlantic Garlic Project

#25

Post: # 52313Unread post bower
Mon Aug 16, 2021 6:58 am

I have no doubt that even our variable seasons are departing further and further from normal, whether hot or cold. We are seeing more "blocking" patterns too, where one kind of weather remains stationary over the area for days on end, instead of quickly moving on. The heat this summer has pushed our usual 'growing degree days' way forward. My friend got a fantastic early harvest of large bulbs at the farm. Their deep rich soil didn't wash out as mine did. I'm really looking forward to seeing how the garlic will do in the old garden where organic matter was dug into the clay, instead of building raised beds on top.
Here's wishing you a good winter for the garlic crop, Sari! :)
AgCan Zone 5a/USDA zone 4
temperate marine climate
yearly precip 61 inches/1550 mm

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bower
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Re: Transatlantic Garlic Project

#26

Post: # 108748Unread post bower
Wed Oct 25, 2023 4:36 pm

I just finished planting garlic for the season, and I thought I would update this thread.
I had a really poor season in 2022, it was shockingly hot and I believe it was much dryer than I thought and all garlic across the board was very small compared to normal. I did manage to size up some seed bulbs to plant this fall 2023 with lots of ferts and wider spacing, but I also grew some bulbils in order to begin to share these varieties with other gardeners here in Canada.
The bulbs:
This year we had a lot of rain in the weeks after removing scapes, which caused more wireworm damage and also some fusarium on some of the bulbs (afaik, a sort of orangey rust between outer wrappers). The two glazers Early Purple and Kolkja Glazer produced some large bulbs but the largest ones were very damaged by the bugs. I need to harvest them earlier next time, for sure. I did get some cloves to plant from the large bulbs and did a short dip in 40% alcohol followed by a soak in kelp extract for these and other cloves that were less than perfect for planting, or were possibly exposed to the fusarium. The two varieties I'm growing that seemed to be most resistant to fusarium, with very clean heads throughout, were Alexandra (of Finland) and Kostyn's Red Russian (BC origin), and also Kolkja Purple. Porcelains suffered the most from the wet bulbing season, and overall the porcelains are less tolerant of wet conditions whether winter or later, and also less tolerant of heat and drought, IMO here. The marbled purple stripes tend to show drought stress sooner, with yellowing on the tips, but overall they perform better, and are not susceptible to the 'pink' thing that is a telltale of too much water in the porcelains growing season.
All of the later garlics suffered the most setback in clove size from a poor year, because they are smaller and have more cloves per bulb, but Lautrec still had some cloves as large as Kolkja Purple, which is surprising for the creole. They are still going to rounds though, which is fine since they are larger to plant, but there's a lossy tendency with rounds, you only have one chance at an unbitten thing to plant. So I don't have as many Lautrec left to plant, but they will have another shot.

So this year, I grew bulbils of Alexandra, Kolkja Red Russian, Lautrec and Kolkja Glazer. I will be growing some Alexandra and Kolkja Red Russian myself just to increase seed stock and give them another whirl at adapting to my crazy hard place.
A garlic growing friend in BC was interested in the marbled purple stripes so she has Alexandra and KRR now to try. And some more of these have been sent to Nicky's swap, for gardeners across Canada.
Next year I will grow bulbils on some others to share out again.

When I look back at where we started it is sad to see how many little garlics didn't survive the wet winters and cold summers at the beginning of this project, while the others are now dealing with extremely hot summers instead. Anyway it is interesting that the varieties from Estonia in particular have been able to weather the worst extremes that my difficult place can throw at the garlic.

Thanks again @svalli for the fantastic gift. This place was perhaps harder on them than we might have hoped but still there are cherished survivors to share. Heart you! Sari.
AgCan Zone 5a/USDA zone 4
temperate marine climate
yearly precip 61 inches/1550 mm

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Re: Transatlantic Garlic Project

#27

Post: # 108750Unread post bower
Wed Oct 25, 2023 4:55 pm

Just a side note about the softneck garlics from bulbils.
Messidor went the same way as Thermidrome - bulbils in every neck and small bulbs. There was no chance to select away from the bulbil producing condition and bulb size stayed tiny.
Germidour was not so prone to bulbils in the neck, but slow to size up. This year 2023 I planted them in spring, about 4 inch spacing apart, in hopes to grow some big rounds for seed. This worked pretty well, and only about 20% were small bulbs from the spring planting. The trouble with rounds is that you need lots of them because one bite from one wireworm and your seed is gone. So in the end I had 5 big clean rounds and three smaller ones, all the rest damaged. So I have just one row of Germidour and if there are no losses due to the wireworms, I might finally get a couple or even one? full sized bulb. Hoping...
AgCan Zone 5a/USDA zone 4
temperate marine climate
yearly precip 61 inches/1550 mm

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