General information and discussion about cultivating onions, garlic, shallots and leeks.
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November 28, 2007 | #31 | |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: NY z5
Posts: 1,205
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Quote:
Must admit I hear a lot about the virtues of various garlic varieties, but I haven't been growing my own and never paid much attention to where the store-bought garlic came from. But there's still time to plant it here before the ground freezes and I think the local Agway still has some in stock, so maybe I'll get some from there and some from the grocery store (whether it's imported from China or wherever), stick it in a convenient spot in the garden, and see how it does. |
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November 28, 2007 | #32 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Tucson, Arizona (catalina)
Posts: 413
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Sorry Guys! someone mentioned food and I forgot what I was talking about. (Senior Moment)
Does anyone use a lot of bonemeal in the bottom of the row. I did for the first time this year and had some really good size heads. Don't know if it really helped or just because we got a good monsoon season with a lot of rain. 8) |
November 28, 2007 | #33 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Langley, BC
Posts: 768
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Bone meal is excellent. I sprinkle it on the beds before planting. In mid spring I side dress with blood meal. Last year I had some of the biggest bulbs ever.
Alex
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I'll plant and I'll harvest what the earth brings forth The hammer's on the table, the pitchfork's on the shelf Bob Dylan |
December 1, 2007 | #34 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Tucson, Arizona (catalina)
Posts: 413
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Glad to hear that velekipop, I've used it on tomato plants for a number of years and just recently started using both bonemeal and bloodmeal on other veggies with good results so far. 8)
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December 4, 2007 | #35 | |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Texas
Posts: 3,027
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Quote:
http://www.gourmetgarlicgardens.com/growsouth.htm http://www.gourmetgarlicgardens.com/growing.htm I planted my cloves six inches apart, got around 144 cloves in a 3x12 bed. I don't think it's recommended to plant much closer than that though. You could plant on the same spacing in a container. |
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December 4, 2007 | #36 |
Tomatoville® Moderator
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: San Antonio, Texas
Posts: 4,386
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Suze-thanks for the link-I will check it out.
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Michael |
December 12, 2007 | #37 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Den of Drunken Fools
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Not that it matters but I have posted that link before.
I'm glad to see it posted again. I emailed the guy and invited him to tomatoville but he said he was too busy to do so. He gave me the address to a man in OK that he said would be interested in the site but I would have to look a long time for the address. Suze is right he is a very nice down to earth person. Worth |
December 13, 2007 | #38 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Central Georgia
Posts: 366
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Well... back to the Garlic from CHINA issue....
I grow garlic for my CSA customers (a dozen of them) and Farmers' Market and our family. For me, it is expensive to grow because organic bulbs costs so much to purchase. I do save some of my own for growing, but never enough. And then the WORK that is required! YIKES. Preparing the soil with 2-4" of manure, planting each little clove by hand, mulching leaves so that each bed gets 4-6" of cover. Then I have to put row covers over that and corn stalks to keep the hens out. Then as someone else commented... THE WEEDING! Yikes! Then the digging, drying, cleaning, sorting by size ... OH MY! I charge $1 per bulb for my garlic and I just shutter with ANGER when I see garlic from china (which I've recently read is subsidized $%#&) at $1 for 5 BULBS! How is that possible????? Shipped from across the ocean!??? It makes me SO MAD.... (Deep Breath).... SIGH It's no wonder farmer's can't make a living in the US.... Lisa
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December 13, 2007 | #39 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Langley, BC
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Lisa,
What you go through must be very frusterating for sure. In Canada small organic farmers have a very difficult time competing with foreign producers. I know of a small organic farmer who raises turkeys. She has to abide by regulations and all sorts of red tape, none of which is required from off shore importers. The small organic farmer or any local farmer for that matter cannot compete in this sort of skewed market. Yet governments are jumping on the band wagon of environmentalism and urging consumers to buy local. It makes no sense!!!
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I'll plant and I'll harvest what the earth brings forth The hammer's on the table, the pitchfork's on the shelf Bob Dylan |
May 30, 2008 | #40 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: z7, Richmond VA
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I was looking thru the garden today, planting some tomatoes and ... I guess just admiring the greenery in general, when I saw a few weeds within the garlic bed. I reached in to grab a weed, pulled a bit ... then noticed it wasn't a weed, but a garlic plant that had died. I figured it just didn't get as much sunlight as its quite happy neighbors are still getting, so it gave up the fight. I pulled some more, couldn't get it out of the ground. Grabbed a trowel, dug down, and pulled up a REAL nice sized head. 2.8 ounces, I weighed later. There were three more near dead soon to be ex-garlic plants in the same row; I removed those as well. There was a monster head -- 3.5 ounces! Sheez, I thought there wasn't even supposed to be swelling of the cloves til late June.
Four proper sized heads (2.0, 2.7, 2.8, and 3.5 ounces). Though I noticed them just today (30 May), these things have been ready to harvest for a couple weeks, as evidenced by just a few thin wisps of rotten paper skins randomly around the cloves. There was still one entire layer around the 3.5 ounce head, so that one looks the nicest; the others, virtually paperless, are a bit dirty, understandably so. [I'll post pics later -- the Boss is in Lexington KY with the camera, snapping pix of horses; her priorities differ from mine.] I checked my planting notes to see what variety these heads were ... and wouldn't you know it, they're the Made In China stuff that I was lamenting last year on this same thread, which is why I searched for and resurrected it. The mind boggles. If the China stuff normally matures here in the States in early to mid-May, that would extend the season here two full months. WOW. More good garlic to eat, and perhaps make a killing at the farmer's market. No way I'll be able to keep these things til October to plant; now I'm actually *hoping* to find more Product Of China garlic at K-Mart come September. Sacrilege. Full garlic in May. Amazing. Oh, and it tastes REAL good too, just like it did last year. China > Gilroy? Again, sacrilege. Dumbfounded, Jay
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Identifying garlic is done mostly by consensus. Many are like trying to identify the difference between twins. |
May 30, 2008 | #41 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: NE Kingdom, VT - Zone 3b
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Wow, that would be great to harvest some garlic before mid August! I'm almost out of the garlic powder I made a couple months ago with what was left of last years bulbs.
We don't have K Mart here, but I'd bet Walmart's garlic is from China, just like everything else they sell. |
June 8, 2008 | #42 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: Southern California
Posts: 62
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Don't be shock! Many farmers who use to grow garlic or other crops now being replace by China and other countries. They will grow something better.
CORN CORN CORN CORN CORN We need Corn for Ethanols, animal feed, high fructose corn syrup, and other multi-use. Corn going to replace most of the crops here in the USA. Muhahaha |
June 8, 2008 | #43 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: Midway B.C. Canada
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I expect your garlic is an Asiatic which are a weakly bolting type sometimes hardneck sometimes softneck. The reason it is growing so fast is that it would have been in cold storage and would have started the growing process as soon as it was put on display in the store.
Henry
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Henry |
June 10, 2008 | #44 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: The Netherlands
Posts: 154
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Like Jay,
I also planted the Chinese garlic (from supermarket) last October and just harvest 8 of them. The bulb size are a lot bigger then the last year messidrom garlic bulbs. I got 3 huge bulbs and 5 normal size bulb (similar size with those from supermarket)...will save the biggest bulbs as seed . |
June 19, 2008 | #45 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Tucson, Arizona (catalina)
Posts: 413
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I also planted chinese garlic (10 bulbs 99cents for all) how in the world, they were also all different sizes from very large down to the size I originally planted. I've not had a variety to fluctuate in size so dramatically from one planting. I love the sharp flavor and will continue to grow and try to get a uniform crop from the larger cloves.8)
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