Garlic 2021

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bower
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Re: Garlic 2021

#41

Post: # 50330Unread post bower
Mon Jul 12, 2021 6:58 am

[mention]ponyexpress[/mention] there are many variations on garlic curing process, which work well for different people depending on your environmental conditions and also your storage expectations and conditions. As mama_lor said, the risk is that you could end up with your bulbs drying out before your expected end of storage.
Some commercial enterprises do cut off the green tops before curing, and that was partly rationalized by the high humidity created by the sheer number of bulbs themselves in their mass storage facilities. But their goals are different than yours - ie to sell bulk garlic, not to have garlic that keeps until the new crop comes out of the ground. Our friend Pure Harvest of TVil, also tried this method and worked well for his large crop in humid environment.
Storage qualities depend on variety as well. The porcelains are excellent keepers for me, but the longest of all are the purple stripes. I also found that my cool room downstairs is ideal for long term garlic storage. At this stage within weeks of the new harvest, I have all good bulbs and even loose cloves left over from planting which are in perfect condition. But anything brought up to the variable heat of the kitchen and summer house will start to sprout or dry up after a few days.
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LK2020
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Re: Garlic 2021

#42

Post: # 50736Unread post LK2020
Sun Jul 18, 2021 1:14 pm

Thanks to advice from this forum, I planted my garlic 6" apart, in rows 1 foot apart. It took a lot of space in my little backyard garden (planted 81), but I went for it, hoping for bigger results than the tiny bulbs I got my first year.

Just harvested 2 of my 3 little patches. I lost some of my best-looking stuff, some Music and all the Chesnok Red. They just died and disappeared. I could dig up little bulbs in some places where the tops were gone, but nothing there in others. But I'm happy with these results! Still have a patch of 24 Georgian Crystal and Pehoski Purple to harvest.

"Group picture," from left: German Extra Hardy, next two are Georgian Crystal, then Music, Persia Star, and Pehoski Purple.

Second picture is my biggest Georgian Crystal, from Jumbo seed cloves.

Garlic 5779 sm.jpg
From left: German Extra Hardy, next two are Georgian Crystal, then Music, Persia Star, and Pehoski Purple.

Big Georgian Crystal sm.jpg
Georgian Crystal, from Jumbo seed cloves.
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Re: Garlic 2021

#43

Post: # 50747Unread post rxkeith
Sun Jul 18, 2021 5:34 pm

i got the baby garlic pulled. this is the three rows of bulbils i planted last year.
most of the garlic formed bulbs about an inch and a half. a few looked to be two inches.
i also had some really big rounds that chose not to divide. i should have some nice bulbs
from them next year. main crop will probably get pulled later this week. i am always amazed
that these bulbils, about finger nail sized can produce fully formed bulbs of decent size. not a
bad return on investment.


keith

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Re: Garlic 2021

#44

Post: # 50765Unread post Paquebot
Sun Jul 18, 2021 9:04 pm

Keith, bulbil to divided bulb in one season is typical of rocambole types. Larger the bulbil, the larger the bulb. Purple stripes take two years and porcelain three.

Martin

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temp swings?

#45

Post: # 50772Unread post JRinPA
Mon Jul 19, 2021 12:04 am

I had some nice big bulbils the past few years, but I didn't go ahead and plant any to test. These were dime to penny size. The same garlic in its walking state was lucky to make 1/4" bulbils. I remember the one poster from tville...Durgan, was planting bulbils, then replanting the rounds, so as not to use up the cloves for replanting. I think after last year's harvest I concluded that letting the bulbils (of MY garlic) grow did indeed lead to smaller bulbs. Though I had some big ones with bulbils too, overall the size was larger without. This year I broke them all off.

I got my garlic out a few days ago..after all the rain...and some of the garlic had started to die back. I did find a few holes from allium leaf miner, but not as many as last year. Most of my garlic still had 5-6 good leaves though and looked fine. Then it sat in the truck bed overnight, and got a 5 minute downpour the next evening. What a mess.

I went through it that night and kept a dozen or so back from the ~80 total to use first. I hung the rest outside under the carport in bundles of 10 or so to dry. I decided to trim the leaves back about 6-8" on the top. Why? I don't know. More air flow I guess.

I was going to leave them there for a while, but now that they are dried off I could take them downstairs like I normally do. Are the temp swings drying outside really that big a deal? I thought many people dry them outside under a roof of some sort?

EDIT Bower I just re-read your post and I think I misunderstood; you are talking about stored garlic exposed to kitchen temp swings, not fresh harvested.
Last edited by JRinPA on Mon Jul 19, 2021 1:00 am, edited 2 times in total.

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Re: Garlic 2021

#46

Post: # 50773Unread post JRinPA
Mon Jul 19, 2021 12:50 am

50.JPG
The bottom right bulb.
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54.JPG
2-3/4" by my overhead read.
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Must be slightly smaller diameter this way.
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I was expecting to see ten cloves. I don't keep a log or anything, but ten is about the average in my mind - these are better than average nice cloves, only the two oddball shapes.
57.JPG
58.JPG
Oh, what I do for science. What a waste. Poked, prodded, and sectioned garlic, forgive me my trespass. :twisted:

Oh! Nevermind.
63.JPG
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Re: Garlic 2021

#47

Post: # 50780Unread post mama_lor
Mon Jul 19, 2021 2:30 am

Speaking of spacing, there were some studies, I forget exactly the numbers, but for maximum yield it's something like 3-4 inches between cloves and using medium cloves. This will of course not give the biggest garlic, and it might be good to use a different spacing for the ones for seed, but will give the most weight per square meter.

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Re: Garlic 2021

#48

Post: # 50782Unread post bower
Mon Jul 19, 2021 6:50 am

I've tried a few different spacings here and settled on 8 inches between rows as a compromise between bulb size and limited space. But no doubt in my mind that you can get bigger bulbs if you can give them more space. I believe the tighter spacing makes water a limiting resource, so it may be possible to increase yield by making sure the right amount of water is made available when they are sizing up. But that can be tricky to do without getting too much.
The robins seem to like 8 inch rows, it's just enough space for them to freely patrol. Easy to hand weed too.
[mention]JRinPA[/mention] thanks for sharing the science... especially that last pic showing how to properly dispose of the specimen. :lol:
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Re: Garlic 2021

#49

Post: # 50790Unread post pepperhead212
Mon Jul 19, 2021 11:41 am

8" is about what I use between the rows, too, and I sort of zig-zag the planting - I run a piece of nylon string them down the row, to make a straight line, with a mark for every spot where to plant the cloves. After the ones are planted on the one side, about 4" away, I plant the other side, about 4" away, but in between the black dots. This way, they are a little more than 8" apart, depending on the spacing of the cloves. And when they start coming up in spring, I run a line of T-tape down where the string was, for watering.
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Growing Coastal
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Re: Garlic 2021

#50

Post: # 50791Unread post Growing Coastal
Mon Jul 19, 2021 12:06 pm

Despite the rust I did get some garlic. Not as big as usual but the German White did well.
Image


Hanging to cure in the shade under an umbrella on the north side of the house. I don't usually take so much wrapper off but didn't want any rust residue on the bulbs.

Image


Image


These oddly shaped cloves are from bulbils.

Image

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bower
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Re: Garlic 2021

#51

Post: # 50798Unread post bower
Mon Jul 19, 2021 12:51 pm

Wow, Coastal, that rust is scary looking! :shock: So glad not to have seen it here. Your bulbs look AWESOME though, in spite of it all. Good catch. 8-)
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Re: Garlic 2021

#52

Post: # 50820Unread post rxkeith
Mon Jul 19, 2021 10:14 pm

well, later in the week turned into lets pull the garlic today. most bulbs were in the 2 inch to 2 & 1/2 inch range
which isn't bad for here. one of the rocamboles reached 3 inches. i had to measure it. it had an extensive root structure.
that was the only one that big. the rocamboles did the best. most were 2 & 1/2 inches. a few were a bit bigger.
music is usually the biggest bulb i have, but not this year. there might be a red or white russian in the mix too. most of
those three were in the 2 inch to 2 & 1/2 inch range.
martins fared the worst for some reason. only three bulbs made it to 2 & 1/2 inch range. the others were all smaller and not
a lot of cloves. i'll have to try them in a different spot, and see what happens. martin says they can get to three inches.
garlic is all in the barn drying.


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Re: Garlic 2021

#53

Post: # 50824Unread post Paquebot
Mon Jul 19, 2021 10:30 pm

Martin's can get to 3½" in decent conditions. A friend is reporting 4" which is what I have been after for a long time. Just haven't had a garlic-friendly spring for 10 years but keep looking to next year. This was the year when the garlic had the best soil conditions and worse harvest that I can remember.

Martin

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Re: Garlic 2021

#54

Post: # 50832Unread post GoDawgs
Tue Jul 20, 2021 6:23 am

Growing Coastal wrote: Mon Jul 19, 2021 12:06 pm
Hanging to cure in the shade under an umbrella on the north side of the house. I don't usually take so much wrapper off but didn't want any rust residue on the bulbs....

These oddly shaped cloves are from bulbils.
I take about that much off too because it's very humid and otherwise would take a long time to dry. I've done it both ways and it doesn't seem to make a difference!

That's a nice haul of garlic! About how big are the bulbil bulbs and how long ago did you start them? I harvested bulbils for the first time this year and will replant them in the fall just for a fun project. I'm also thinking about putting some of those in a window box and keeping them on the front porch. From what I've read it will take about three years for mine which are marble purple stripe and rather small. The largest ones I sorted out are about 1/4 - 3/8" in diameter.

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Re: Garlic 2021

#55

Post: # 51150Unread post Growing Coastal
Sun Jul 25, 2021 11:19 am

The bulbils are 1.5 -2" across. Plnted in late Sept and dug at end of June.

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Re: Garlic 2021

#56

Post: # 51178Unread post JRinPA
Mon Jul 26, 2021 1:41 am

I too cringe at that rust...
That's pretty respectable! Sept bulbils to that size. I am forever mixing them up in conversation, so I'm not sure here - did the spanish roja from bulbils form one big clove each or are they multi clove bulbs?

Also how much space did the bulbils get? That pic with the rust looks very tightly spaced.

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Re: Garlic 2021

#57

Post: # 51231Unread post Growing Coastal
Tue Jul 27, 2021 10:31 am

I never expect bulbils to get very large so, yes, I do crowd them. The Spanish Roja were mostly a large single with smaller cloves at the sides of the bulb.

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Re: Garlic 2021

#58

Post: # 51410Unread post svalli
Fri Jul 30, 2021 7:03 am

All my fall planted garlic has been dug up and is drying in the garage. July here was hotter and dryer than normally, so the heads may be smaller than normally, but still quite OK. The black plastic sheet retains some moisture on the ground even without watering.

PSX_20210730_144449.jpg

I harvested 1010 heads from 1173 planted cloves. Some were lost due to water voles digging the field under the snow cover in winter. We have not had such problem before and I did not know that those things could eat garlic. Few bulbs were discarded, because onion maggots had caused the bulb to start deteriorating. Luckily there were not many like that.

All that garlic is why too many and too much work, so I decided that I can plant only 600 this coming fall. I hope I will keep that. :D

Sari
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Re: Garlic 2021

#59

Post: # 51457Unread post bower
Fri Jul 30, 2021 7:16 pm

They look gorgeous Sari. :)
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Re: Garlic 2021

#60

Post: # 51634Unread post bower
Mon Aug 02, 2021 12:02 pm

My main crop and early garlics are now in - the earliest date ever for that harvest here, and one of the wierdest seasons ever for weather during the growing season. Early thaw and record breaking rain in April, followed by near record drought in May. June was alternately hotter and colder than normal and fairly dry, and July needed watering too in spite of the humid heat. Porcelain scapes a week earlier than ever, and I've never seen scapes come out and curl so fast. Then finally as harvest time approached we started to get all the rain to make up for the dryness.... Hot weather but with thundershower downpours right up to harvest date.
I am satisfied that I got enough perfect big bulbs for planting, and since I'm growing way more than I need there will be more than plenty to eat too, but the effects of this strange weather are worth noticing.
The porcelains suffered quite a bit of damage from the rain when it came, so there are lots of bulbs with split wrappers and spots on one clove etc. It was interesting to see that the marbled purple stripes, which are also early, didn't suffer the same amount of damage. So they seem to be more adaptable to extreme weather in the growing season, and another good reason to grow many kinds. :)
Overall, there were a lot of smaller than normal bulbs for all types. I believe this is probably due to the extreme rain in April, which washed away a lot of nutrients and even the soil itself from the raised beds seems to have washed down into the subsoil of rocky clay or gravel, leaving the beds quite a bit shallower than before. I noticed it when I put my fork in to dig, that the tines struck rock or gravel below. As always the soil building project goes on forever! :roll: :lol:
On the plus side, there was no sign of mites around the roots except for some minor signs on garlic in the back row of one bed. And I didn't see any wireworms around the bulbs, and little damage I could blame on them for sure. I hung all the garlic with any kind of small damages or sign of mites in the warmer porch, where they will dry out faster and I can see if any troublemaker emerges from any of those damaged wrappers or holes. ;)
garlic2021-porcelaindamage-891.JPG
garlic2021-bonavistasmall-850.JPG
garlic2021-kostyns-manysmall835.JPG
garlic2021-warmer883.JPG
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