Today's harvest

[pepperhead212]

I've never been a fan of garlic powder - seems to give things an unpleasant after taste, but maybe because it is almost always old. Back when fresh garlic was not readily available, the dried "minced" garlic was better, but fresh was still best.

I dug up all but my metechi today, as most of those still have a lot of green. I got 97 to hang in the basement, plus about 20 that need to be used quickly (gave a dozen of those to my neighbor, who brought me over a plate from their BBQ). Estonian red was the best, with very few of those plants that turned brown too fast, which happened with a lot of the new varieties Italian Red and Montana Giant, both of which had a good number of large bulbs, but a number of those were the early all brown plants, with just a green stalk. I dug them up as they appeared, but had to label them "use 1st".
Just one side of the row of Estonian Red 7-04-20 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

The other side of the Estonian Red row 7-04-20 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

A couple of bulbils left on some of the Estonian Reds by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Estonian Reds, the one on the bottom with just 2 huge cloves. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

48 heads of Estonian Red, and 17 heads of Montana Giant, ready to cure, 7-04-20 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

32 Italian Reds, next to those 17 Montana Giants, ready to cure, 7-04-20 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Montana Giant, Italian Red, and Estonian Red, hanging in the basement to cure, in front of my lathe. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

 

[pepperhead212]

Home dried garlic granules and garlic powder sounds good to me. A friend of mine used to do that with her "excess" garlic.

Excess garlic - what's that?

 

[taxlady]

Excess garlic - what's that?

Garlic that will go off before one has the chance to use it.

 

[larry_stewart]

Last year I had 60 which almost lasted me the entire year. I had to finally bite the bullet and buy garlic from the store about 3 weeks ago. It was ok, cause at that point, the remaining garlics were starting to sprout, so they didnt have much more storage time anyway. I figured this year I'd double it ( 120 for those with mathematically challenged ). Im glad I did due to the water-logging issue I had. About 50 appear will dry and store nicely. The other 50 Ill have to keep a close eye on. The outer part seems to be drying well, and they feel firm. The first sign of them staring to go, and off to the dehydrator they go ( along with cooking anything I can that calls for a lot of garlic that could store well, like sauces and such). Then there were the 20 that just didnt make it. The ones where the stalk pulled up easy, were slimy and had that rotted garlic smell. When I was done harvesting yesterday, I turned over both beds, hoping that maybe some of the heads , although the stalk pulled out easily, were still healthy and submerged in the ground ( No such luck). They literally rotted away completely. That being said, each year there are always extra garlic plants that arise from the rogue cloves that separate during the harvesting process. All in all, a decent garlic year with a lesson to be learned about water and soil drainage. I'd rather have the extra 20 heads of garlic, but anytime I learn something new , I consider that a good outcome as well. Lets just hope you can teach a dog new tricks and amend the soil to avoid a repeat situation.

 

[dragnlaw]

Pepper, the following questions are for you too. Both you and Larry have the most amazing crop of garlic!

Last year I had 60 which almost lasted me the entire year. .... I figured this year I'd double it ( 120 for those with mathematically challenged ). Im glad I did due to the water-logging issue I had. About 50 appear will dry and store nicely. The other 50 Ill have to keep a close eye on. ...... amend the soil to avoid a repeat situation.

I was wondering just how big is the bed for 160 garlic? I don't want to plant that many, thinking 50, as a single person, would be plenty, or even 75. So I need to mentally divide my boxes up to plan what's going to fit them.

Also are they 'heavy' feeders? I'm guessing that by 'amending' the soil you mean the drainage issue?

My compost won't be ready for at least another year, what do you suggest adding to feed them?

 

[pepperhead212]

dragnlaw, I don't think of them as "heavy feeders", since there really isn't that much of a plant, including the root, compared to most of what I grow. You might want to get a soil test, to see what it needs. A basic time release fertilizer (there are many organic ones, if that's what you want), and you want some higher phosphate for these, plus sulfur, if your soil is low in that. Garlic or onions grown in low sulfur soil will be low in flavor.

I have also experienced an excessive amount of water for garlic. Ideally, we would have about 3 weeks before harvest without rain, but then, we can't control the weather! This year has been good in that respect. Last year was not good, as there was constant rain up to, and past harvest. What happens is the skin doesn't dry well, so when harvested, a lot of it peels off, and does not form several layers of protective skin, and there may be only a couple of layers, if that. When they begin drying out underground, like they were this year, I brushed the soil off, and no skin came off, except with a few that browned early, and even those only lost one layer. The worst thing happened the only year that I tried any softnecks, and it was about the worst season I've ever had for rain. Even though they were in raised rows, they were constantly soaked, and eventually the upper parts had rotted, and all that was visible was the hardneck stalk - the softnecks were gone! I dug up the area where I knew they were, but didn't find all of them - maybe this is what happened to Larry. That year, what I did harvest, did not store well.

 

[dragnlaw]

thanks pepper I'm looking to find where I can (reasonably) have the soil tested.

 

[pepperhead212]

drgnlaw In another recent thread, I gave this link, for getting soil tests. This is the best place I have found, through the years, to get the most testing done for the least money. It's only $12.00 for a standard testing, which covers a lot of items, plus a suggestion for the amount of fertilizer needed, depending on what you are growing.
Soil Testing Lab

 

[taxlady]

drgnlaw In another recent thread, I gave this link, for getting soil tests. This is the best place I have found, through the years, to get the most testing done for the least money. It's only $12.00 for a standard testing, which covers a lot of items, plus a suggestion for the amount of fertilizer needed, depending on what you are growing.
Soil Testing Lab

I doubt it is legal to mail soil from Canada to the US. There's a risk of microorganisms in the soil.

 

[larry_stewart]

My 2 beds, one being about 3 feet by about 9 feet, the other about 2 feet by 8'ish.
My garlics usually are about 6 -8 inches apart. Their foliage isn't dense, and their roots dont spread out much, so Ive never really had a problem with that spacing.

I plant them in mid to late October. I do mulch them with a chopped up dry leaf mulch that I make myself from the fallen autumn leaves. Ive used Straw in the past, but ive found sometimes the young garlic have troubles navigating their way through the straw , which is not a big deal, but I then have to fish through the straw to upright and help those that couldn't find their way. Th leaf mulch is pretty easy for th garlic to penetrate through, and does a good job with the weeds ( and maybe a little too good of a job retaining moistures, although this was the first year I had the moisture problem ,and both garlic beds had the same mulch, so I cant blame it on the mulch).

As far as fertilizing goes, I always till in some, for lack of better words, chicken crap fertilizer ( home made (from the chicken, not me )) that has aged. I also loosely follow the guidance of the Garlic Farmer I often by some of my seed garlic from. I figure if he does this for a living, basically same zone Im and only about 30 miles north or so, what works for him is likely going to work for me.

The Garlic Farm | Tips for growing garlic at home

Each year Connecticut has an ' Open Farm Day', in September , which a lot of th farms ( including the garlic farm). Either give tours, have question and answer sessions, sample some of their crops or products they generate on their farms. Every time I goo I chew the guys ear off on how to grow garlic, He probably hates when he sees me there each year, but I dont care. If im up there this year Ill be sure to have a conversation with him about my water problem. Anyway, above is the link to his garlic growing guide, which is what he does for the type of garlic he grows in his region. Obviously may differ, but nice to see how the pros do it then adjust to your personal situation. I follow their farm on Facebook too, and they are looking for seasonal garlic harvesters. If I had the free time I'd do it and only ask to be paid in garlic.

The other thing thats nice about the garlic plants and their leaves is they dont really shade out the plants behind them.

The pics are from a couple of different years, but will give you and idea of how I space them. You can see the straw mulch in one of the pics . Another one has what looks like a mix of straw and leaves. And a couple of pics show the two beds basically side by side, separated by a brick partition ( which is the wall of the raised bed, the other is actually in between raised beds ( one is a brick raised bed , the other has wood borders. Now looking at the pics , it looks like the garlics a little more than six inches apart, maybe its 8. who knows. Anyway, I hope my long winded answer helps a somewhat.

 

[larry_stewart]

Oh, and that grid over the bed on the right is my way of 'cat proofing' thee garlic bed so they dont get dug up or worse!!!

 

[PrincessFiona60]

I doubt it is legal to mail soil from Canada to the US. There's a risk of microorganisms in the soil.

Oh no! Canadian Cooties?!?

Actually that was my first thought...would not be able to mail it to the states. Maybe can find a University in Canada that will test cheaply or an Ag extension office. Do you guys have that, Taxi?

 

[dragnlaw]

I'm pretty sure we have the equivalent of an Ag Extention... just don't know what it's called here. Once had my pastures tested by an equine nutritionalist and I imagine that Co--op would at least be able to head me in the right direction.

and HEY! nothing wrong with Canadian Cooties!

lol 3rd edit!
I should have put in that I was looking in Quebec... sorry pepper!

 

[dragnlaw]

thaks Larry - that's great...

think I've mentioned before - I need to SEE things to understand better. I always tell people I'm from Missouri - but most Canadians don't get it. LOL

 

[PrincessFiona60]

I'm pretty sure we have the equivalent of an Ag Extention... just don't know what it's called here. Once had my pastures tested by an equine nutritionalist and I imagine that Co--op would at least be able to head me in the right direction.

and HEY! nothing wrong with Canadian Cooties!

lol 3rd edit!
I should have put in that I was looking in Quebec... sorry pepper!

I don't know, we have some pretty weak cooties, yours might take over...

 

[dragnlaw]

I don't know, we have some pretty weak cooties, yours might take over...

oh really? nah, we wouldn't do that...

 

[SaltSearSavor]

There are many good reasons to have garlic powder. It seems to work better in dip. If you want to make a salad dressing that should be able to last for more than a week in the fridge, it keeps better with garlic powder than with fresh garlic. It's useful in a spice mix that you can keep in the cupboard. Garlic powder is really handy when you are pooped out or in a hurry. I spoke with a Chinese chef who says that some dishes require the dried garlic bits - won't work properly with freshly minced garlic.

I agree! I think garlic powder/granules are just different than fresh garlic. I don't think it's worse by any means. Just different. So therefore maybe not quite a direct substitute when you're out of the fresh stuff.

 

[pepperhead212]

I harvested about a dozen Metechi today, after noticing that a number of those had lost most of the green quickly. I dug them up individually, which I did a while back with the other varieties. Everything I left in had at least 4 green leaves - I dug 2 with 4 greens that were large stalks, but left a few smaller ones. When only dealing with the few plants of the one variety, this is doable, but not when I had all the rest of those! I might harvest tomorrow - I'll play it by ear, as I might try to dig them out, if rain is coming, as I would rather get them a bit smaller, but dry, so that they can store longer. Tuesday is more likely for rain, but forecasts change constantly, and every day is hot and humid! Metechi is traditionally my longest storing garlic, which is another reason I want to pull it dry. And as deep as it is, one of those fast storms probably won't wet the soil deep, but, again, I'll wait and see.
Metechi - about a dozen dug up early, since they had few green leaves left.7-05-20 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

 

[larry_stewart]

Is there a general rule to determine when to harvest beets? Or just go by the seed packets suggested days to mature? I dont grow them often, but they have been in the ground for about 2 months. They seem smaller that the packet description and dont seem to be getting noticeably larger. Its the Detroit Dark Red variety which claim to be mature in 60 days and up to 3" diameter. I just dont want to leave them in too long and have them get woody. Also, are the leaves still edible at this stage in the games, or is it preferred to eat them only as young leaves ?

 

[pepperhead212]

I'm not a fan of beets - taste like dirt to me, no matter what variety I grew, even the white ones, though less so. I think it's a genetic thing, like people that taste cilantro and think "soap". However, with all of those varieties I tried, I got the leaves! Like eating older chard leaves. Some were better than others, but not noticeable in something like a Mexican dish. Some lady I knew way back then loved beets, so they didn't go to waste, but I taught her how to grow them, and stopped.

More eggplant today - the first Neon, and the Ichiban eggplants are still producing like crazy. However, the drawback is that the Ichiban (and many other varieties, as with tomatoes) stops flowering when it gets very hot, and it seems to have happened a bit early this season, since it has been 6 days in the 90s, and every day in the 10 day forecast is in the 90s. Usually later than this in the season! However, all of the eggplants already formed on them will develop, and one of the Ichibans has at least 11 eggplants started that are at least 3" long, and a bunch more smaller ones - just no more blossoms. The rest of the varieties are still flowering.
The first Neon, plus more Ichibans, 7-6 by pepperhead212, on Flickr