On 2022-06-17, songbird wrote:
> fos@sdf.org wrote:
> ...
>> i had small garlic last year, not as small as that. this year's garlic
>> will be mature in a few more weeks, mid july-ish. the plants are bigger
>> and the stalks a lot thicker than the year before.
> that's progress! :)
>> the first planting i planted too late. within a week or two the soil
>> froze. last year, the second, i planted the garlic within days of
>> receiving the seed garlic in early october (growing zone 6) giving the
>> roots a chance to develop.
>> the first year i guessed at the soil nutrients and put some bone meal
>> and a bit of potash in the holes when planting the garlic thinking that
>> would help grow nice fat bulbs. last fall i picked up one of the cheap
>> rapid test kits, checked ph & NPK and amended as recommended before
>> planting.
>> this year although the plants and stalk are larger, the leaves aren't as
>> green as i think they should be and some are showing a bit of yellow. i
>> haven't put on nitrogen which would promote leaf growth at the sacrifice
>> of bulb growth, but i have used fish and seaweed emulsion a few times
>> which is higher in phosphorus and potassium than it is nitrogen.
>> right after i harvest the garlic this year, i'll get the LaMotte test
>> kit out, test the soil, and amend per recommendations. then i'll mulch
>> the bed with leaf mold until the end of september, test and amend again,
>> and depending on how large the garlic is plant either purchased seed
>> garlic or garlic saved from this years harvest for 2023.
>> am i following the right path here?
> don't put amendments in the hole, but mix them througout the
> soil area that the garlic cloves will be planted into, you can
> use poorer quality soil on top of the cloves because most of the
> roots will not grow upwards that much.
> mainly after that you don't want it to dry out completely until
> the next summer. when frozen outside you don't need to water at
> all until the snow melts or if you somehow get an extended dry
> and warm spell during the winter.
> keep weeded. fertilize only when actively growing.
i harvested my garlic a couple days ago. last year i was disappointed,
this year i'm satisfied but there's room for improvement. the average
size bulbs this year are the size of the largest i had last year. the
largest this year are huge, 2.5 to 3 inches diameter. about 15% of the
harvest is that size.
i did lose a lot of cloves. i planted 135 cloves and got 87 bulbs. i
used shredded straw as a mulch and failed to keep it fluffed up. i did
pull quite a bit off in the spring but it was too late, i found a lot a
lot of plants that sprouted and didn't make it to the surface. the ones
that survived were stunted and grew real small bulbs. i'm going to use a
different mulch, probably compost mixed with shredded leaves. what's not
clear to me is the depth of planting. should 2-3 inches of mulch be
included in the depth of planting? i planted 6" deep and added 2-3 inches
of shredded straw. if i use 2-3 inches of compost with shredded leaves,
should i plant only 3-4 inches deep in the actual soil?
watering. i didn't pay close enough attention to keeping the soil moist.
in the fall i planted the cloves, covered with mulch, and left them
alone. this fall, over winter, and next spring, i'll be diligent about
maintaining moist soil.
last is fertilization. judging by the color of the plants which were
lighter green this year than last and despite much better results this
year, i'm confident i was too light with nitrogen. a soil test will
determine that next week. will be using less purchased amendments and
more compost, too.
thanks for the insight. excelsior.
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fos@sdf.org
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