1 July 2007 Pulling Garlic and re-planting the area. http://aipoh.notlong.com/ 1 July 2007 Pulling Garlic and re-planting the area. Pictures. http://xrl.us/2m4n Same site but speed of loading may vary. Garlic was pulled today and the area planted with two rows of lettuce and one row of Joi Choi for later season use. "Durgan's Method" of planting small seeds is explained with pictures. Two garlic plants did not have the snake seed head (scapes) removed, and these were noticably smaller than the other bulbs. All the other bulds were about the same size. These are slightly smaller than the crop of last year. This is attributed to insufficient watering. The quality is superb generally, and all would be marketable in the commercial world. http://www.durgan.org/Blog/Durgan.html
http://meiso.notlong.com/ 8 July 2007. Processing Garlic for further drying. The garlic will be dried throughly then stored in paper bags. The soft neck snake garlic was dry enough to cut the stems and root hairs. The garlic will be dried further until the tops are sealed. The pulled garlic has been drying for about 7 days. http://www.durgan.org/Blog/Durgan.html
Always love the updates. My garlic is coming along, I don't see any scapes developing yet but I was wondering how long after you removed the scapes were the plants ready to harvest? I looked around on your website for the entry, but I couldn't seem to find it.
For pulling the garlic I sort of use the first week of July in Zone 5, also the bottom leaves should start dying and the neck above the bulb should be a little soft when squeezed. All this is subjectve. The pulling time is not associated with removing the scapes. Also some garlic does not have scapes-not definite about this, but seem to remember reading it someplace. http://www.durgan.org/Blog/Durgan.html
Some excellent tips to go by. All of the growth is still quite green and firm so I guess they need to spend a bit more time in bed. Thanks!
http://uuwae.notlong.com 13 July Garlic stored. The processing of the 2007 garlic crop was completed today. The pictures are annotated in the bottom center. http://www.durgan.org/Blog/Durgan.html Durgan.
Probably not. You will probably end up with a shoot from each clove, but if you have only have one clove or bulb, which is common if the bulb is put into the ground too late to mature, it may go to the clove state, but I am not sure. To put it bluntly it is not a good practice if the desired result is to make large bulbs with seven or eight cloves. Any healthy cloves from the superrmarket will produce good garlic if planted in the fall season. I have seen gardens with an area for garlic and it has the appearance of chives growing- meaning many green shoots. The green shoots are pulled and used in cooking. Not very useful in my opinion. http://www.durgan.org/Blog/Durgan.html
Thank you Durgan. My garlic went dormant about three weeks ago. I planted it in December (I moved into my house in December, thus the late planting) I think I will dig them up separate the bulbs and replant them for next year. What are your thoughts on this?
Not worth the effort. Plant new cloves in the late Fall Season the larger the better. Any quality garlic from the supermarket will suffice. One bulb has about seven cloves. One clove one plant. I am talking about Zone 5, and I plant about the 15 of October. I don't like the shoots to come above ground before frost arrives, but can live with it if they do come up a bit. I generally cover them a little without a loss of quality, when this has occurred. Garlic is probably the easiest garden vegetable to grow. http://www.durgan.org/Blog/Durgan.html
Durgan am I right in saying some commercial cloves are treated so they don't shoot easily??? or is this an urban myth. I am thinking the huge quantities of imported Chinese garlic we have here. Liz
Supermarket garlic has been grown in the past by me. I don't think garlic is nuked to improve shelf life, since it keeps well anyway. I have no evidence to support the nuke view, just opinion. The food industry is bottome-line orientated and wouldn't spend money unless absolutely necessary. The arrival of Chinese garlic on the market is most astonishing, since the plant is so easy to grow in North America. I have studied Chinesse garlic visually in the supermarket, and it all appears to be quality, very similar to home grown garlic. My own grown garlic is used for seed when possible. Looking at some of the garlic offered in Garden Centers, I suggest the Supermarket garlic is superior in many cases and much cheaper. Just select large, quality bulbs. http://www.durgan.org/Blog/Durgan.html
Thank you Durgan for such informative photos. It's my first time that I am going to plant garlic and I think your photos will help me a lot. Do you fertilize your soil a lot? Also, I am concerned about mold on the garlic since it rains so much here in British Columbia. Do you have any suggestions? Maybe I should cover garlic for the winter?
The garlic plants don't seem to mind the rain we have in the Vancouver area. I generally plant mine any time from August to October (usually before we get a frost) The bulbs will start to grow right away then they sit somewhat dormant during the cold months of the fall and winter and start growing again when the weather warms up in the spring. I think that you will find that most Lower Mainland gardeners plant their garlic the 'year before' the crop will get harvested to take advantage of the growth the plants can put on before the weather gets cold. As far as covering the plants for the winter, I've done both and the plants don't seem to mind one way or another. The biggest problem you might encounter with covering them (particularily if you use leaves) is the snails and slugs have a place to hide and they do like to nibble on the young garlic leaves . . . . Anne
Thank you Anne. I was getting worried about all the rain but hopefully it won't be a problem. Snails and slugs are a totally different story!!! I wish I could get rid of them!
I've found that copper strips available from Gardenworks have been very effective at deterring slugs and snails. I've only seen 1 slug all year in my 3 4'x4' raised beds, and I think it came in on some overhanging foliage.
One thought re covering garlic for winter. Tho the plants don't mind all the rain, the weeds growing in the garlic area thru our winters can get maddening. As an experiment last winter, I piled on several inches of very coarse sweepings from under our weeping willow tree...mostly leaves and twigs that come down in the fall storms. This layer was as deep as I dared, and I did wonder if the young garlic plants would be able to pop thru it... but they did with no problem come spring. And almost no weeds, for the first time in memory!
AlexH and growest, these are just wonderful ideas!! I have to try these. It will be my first year growing garlic so I hope it will be successful.