PH's 2017 Garlic Trials
 

So I wanted to share my first garlic attempt with you guys. Maybe I can help someone else out through my mistakes or hopeful successes.
I planted 30 pounds total of cloves back on Halloween weekend in 2016.
Music and Romanian Red.

Beds are 36" wide. Garlic is spaced 9" apart in all directions.
Music (Large bulbs) planted a 140' bed. Romanian Red (Large bulbs) planted 105' bed. And Romanian Red (Jumbo bulbs) planted an 80' bed.
The 3rd bed (jumbo Romanian) looks unbelievably great, green, and robust.
They were planted 1 week after the other two rows in the first weekend of November. Everything else is the same (supplier, fert, soil, methods).

I think weeding is for the birds and was concerned with wheat and weeds sprouting in straw (plus it keeping the soil too cool in early spring), so i am using 3 mil landscape fabric with two runs of drip tape underneath.
Used a long handle propane torch to burn the holes (attaches to small campstove bottle). First I cut out holes with a hole saw on a drill into a 3' wide piece of plywood. Lay the board onto the fabric and then your spacing is set up for the holes and it keeps the torch from melting too big of a hole. So far since planting last fall, I've spent about 10 TOTAL minutes weeding, just because I wanted to clean up a handful of holes where a couple of henbit or chickweed poked out with the garlic stalk. They would have been fine if I left them because they die of this time of the year (the cool season weeds) anyway.

Pre-plant fertilizer was an organic based chicken manure with sulfate of potash. The formula was 8-4-4. I foliar fed with some Dr. Earth Organic stuff I got on clearance from HD for $2.33/hose end bottle. Normally is like $20. Looks like really good stuff but too expensive for large areas. But I used it twice as an early quick shot in mid and late march. I have put nitrogen through the drip once a week starting in late-march (calcium nitrate, equivalent of 10 lbs of actual N per acre per feeding). Plan on doing the last feed this week.
April has been very dry here. Unusually so. I've had to run the drip 3-4 times in April.
Waiting for scape season and then harvest.
Have seen some tip burn. Not sure if that was from the cold spell in early march after they emerged from a MILD winter, or N deficiency, or 100 other factors. It is just the tips which sounds normalish. If the entire leaf would turn color or wilt, I'd worry, but it's just tips.


March 25th 2017

[ATTACH]71954[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]71955[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]71956[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]71957[/ATTACH]

April 10th 2017

[ATTACH]71958[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]71959[/ATTACH]

Forgot, this is the hole/planting dibbler I made out of 100% scrap wood I had.
The stakes are surveying stakes I cut down to the size I needed. They are already factory pointed at one end...perfect for this application.
Set them 9" apart in all directions. Can make 6 holes the first time, but then you press one row of 3 into the previous row to keep your pattern, so in effect, you make 3 new holes with each pressing. If that makes sense. Very easy to use. Took about 10 minutes to press out the 140' bed.
I played with a single stake before I screwed them to the frame to figure out how deep I needed them to go to get the right final depth, knowing some soil would back-fill the hole as they are pulled out.
These beds were not rototilled. They were 3 years ago when I laid black plastic and planted tomatoes. I never took the plastic off after the season, and it grew up in weeds for 2 years. I pulled of all the dead growth by hand, and removed the tattered remaining plastic and raked the beds back into a linear shape. I could push a pin flag down at least 8" until hitting a hardpan, so we went ahead with planting. So far things look good.

[ATTACH]71960[/ATTACH]

October 29th 2016

[ATTACH]71962[/ATTACH]

I should note that I originally planted into soil and mulched with straw before I discovered the fabric with holes method. We cleared the straw in early Feb when the tips were just poking through and were able to carefully lay the drip tape and fabric over the beds/plants and pin it down. We then put the straw against the edge of the fabric to keep the weeds away from the edge of the beds and sort of seal off the edge of the fabric. it is working perfectly. No weeds along the edge to pull!
These shots were February 6th 2017.
This fall, we will prep the beds, fertilize, lay the drip tape, roll out the fabric, pin it down, and dibble the holes and plant the cloves. Done till the next summer. I don't know how you can get the labor (mostly in weeding) any lower than this method. I know people are doing this on black plastic, but you need a tractor and plastic layer attachment. Plus you have to pull up the plastic every year and throw it away. Wasteful. Then you have to keep buying plastic. I expect to get at least 5-7 years out of my fabric. A 3'x300' roll of fabric cost me $50.
[ATTACH]71963[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]71964[/ATTACH]

I tarped a 50' x 200' foot area to pre-prep for this fall's planting. The silage tarps are heavy 7 mil (If i recall). They have been on since late March. The idea is to smother all growth without needing to till/buy a tractor. Then weed seeds will be forced to germinate and die (stale seedbed method). In a couple weeks, I will uncover and have a nice bare seeds bed to plant a buckwheat cover crop into. I will mow this down in about 45-60 days right as flowers are finishing/before seeds set. I will cover again to smother any stubble/weeds/mowed material to speed decomposition. I will uncover late June/early July and plant tillage radishes. The hope is that the long and massive tap roots will loosen the soil deeply so that I don't have to spray/till ahead of garlic planting. I will mow and cover the radishes in late September. Uncover at the end of October and see if I can direct plant. If not, I will do one pass with the BCS tiller and prep my beds.
The goal is to optimize soil health by not destroying the soil food web and structure by rototilling. It seems to have worked with the beds that were covered with plastic for 2 years, but this is only gonna be one season of covering.
I might need to do this 2 growing seasons ahead of fall planting for it to work with out tillage.

[ATTACH]71965[/ATTACH]

So how are you planning to harvest? Pull the fabric over the tops of the plants so you can get at the bulbs?

I'm thinking one person on each side of the bed and pulling up as we go. if you think about it, we are going to be going with the direction of the leaves, plus many will be brown/brittle.
Also considered cutting the tops off with a sickle bar mower then simply pulling the cover off.
However, I am concerned a topless bulb wont have the surface area to then dry down properly, possibly affecting the storage quality.
I'll gladly spend a little time coaxing the cover off the bed versus the time spent weeding or dealing with straw.
I saw a You tube video of a woman weeding what looked like a half acre of garlic by hand, down on her hands and knees. It made me sick to watch. And they had straw down too.

Always got something going on and always interesting.

So how ARE you going to harvest? By hand? Whew.

I wouldn't cut off the tops before drying them. You have quite a large harvest - are you selling the heads?

Nice looking operation!

Thanks everyone.
Our soil is sandy.
While I don't relish a Saturday with a digging fork, it would be doable.
It's only 3 beds.
My father in law wants to weld an undercutting bar to cut the roots and slightly lift the bulbs. We'll see if he can get that done in time.
I plan on saving most of the bulbs for this fall's planting.
I have a few other connections between stores, farm stands, and wholesalers.
We'll see how harvesting and cleaning/processing goes.
If I can organize the labor there, I'd like to grow 1/2-1 acre at some point. Waiting on hearing back from a major buyer first and getting through this first harvest to think about that step.

I would love to have the land to plant that much garlic!

Harvesting garlic is definitely something you don't want to do by pulling -- until they cure the bulbs can be subject to bruising, and the roots will be holding on tight tight.

Keep us posted!

I hear ya on the pulling. Was trying to explain to my FIL that the undercutter just needed to cut the roots. I didn't need it to pull the bulbs up out of the ground.
Gonna approach these things like eggs.

And I thought the 1000 cloves I planted was a lot. I spent half of Sunday weeding mine, I like your methods better. Nice Job!

Very cool, I cant find sillage tarps around here. I'm also curious which sandbags your using. It looks like your following the Curtis Stone method? I watch his stuff too. I covered my whole backyard in weed barrier and black plastic this year. Weeds be dammed!!!!

Big V, YES! Curtis is the best.
Got the tarps and sandbags from Farmersfriendllc.com

I had been playing with fabrics and smother ideas for awhile and when I stumbled onto his videos, I thought to myself, "I knew i wasn't crazy". This is exactly what I envisioned and he is doing it. It was cool to get the intel on the long tube torch and board method for making the holes.

His videos were/are a great reminder that you gotta let go of the rules of any trade and do your own thing if it works for your context and you aren't hurting others in the process.
Also agree with him that you have to use your time for things that pay you. Weeding doesn't pay me. Mowing doesn't pay me. Freeing up time to be continually planting, harvesting, and selling pays me.

True that. I myself think tilling/weeding are kinda dumb. I'm not saying people that do it are dumb, but I myself hate both and as you said it waste time, not to mention disease problems weeds bring. One good thing about working full time is being forced to find easier/faster ways of doing things. I figure once I go full time I will be much better off and be able to efficiently manage much more. Keep it up PH your way ahead of me already and I feel like I could make a living wage in another year or 2.

I've worked on a garlic farm before and we used a large broadfork to harvest the G. Yes, it was a pain and hotter than the hinges. Nice job here with the quick stab contraption and overall a nice clean operation.

Figure you could probably doing some hard neck in you area, I am really only able to do soft neck here (but love hardneck mo better).

One of the big sellers was doing the garlic ropes. Some young hippie chicks (I was much young too ;)) would braid some long strands that ppl loved to hang in their kitchen and such. Very ornate.

Easy to grow and loooong shelf life. Best of success. I've eaten so much garlic, the chances of getting bit by a vampire are slim to none.

Great job. Thanks for sharing.
Fun to see and read the process getting it worked out for the future.

I pass through Saugerties on my way to my farm. Saugerties hosts a big garlic
festival every year. So it grows easily. It was an early dream of mine to grow garlic,
asparagus, rhubarb, grapes and some fruit trees. All do well for me. (except fruit is
averaging every third year due to late frost)
I would have needed to win the lottery to afford to do it back then.

How hot does the soil temperature get to under the cover? Most garlic varieties will halt bulb growth and development when soil temperatures reach 80F to 90F.

You may already know about this guy, the fruit tree expert. I bought his books and follow his blog which is informative and readable. See if you are interested in this:

[url]http://www.leereich.com/[/url]

[QUOTE=oakley;634300]Great job. Thanks for sharing.
Fun to see and read the process getting it worked out for the future.

I pass through Saugerties on my way to my farm. Saugerties hosts a big garlic
festival every year. So it grows easily. It was an early dream of mine to grow garlic,
asparagus, rhubarb, grapes and some fruit trees. All do well for me. (except fruit is
averaging every third year due to late frost)
I would have needed to win the lottery to afford to do it back then.[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=henry;634316]How hot does the soil temperature get to under the cover? Most garlic varieties will halt bulb growth and development when soil temperatures reach 80F to 90F.[/QUOTE]

That's a good question. I figure the crop will be out by the time it gets bad here.
There is an established farm 20 miles west of me that grows a half acre on black plastic that is turning out good yields. And unlike plastic, my fabric is porous an breathes, plus the edges aren't sucked down tight to the soil.
There is also a guy in ohio that has a nice website that has grown garlic for years and all of his is now on black plastic (he hates weeding and straw too).

MFS, yes both varieties are hardneck.

You are doing some impressive work! I have been growing my onions with black plastic for many years and when I got started growing garlic, I have used the same method too. The plastic which I use can last many seasons, if I do not tear it, but the fabric seems like better choice. Here it is commonly used for strawberries and other perennial crops and it can last well over ten years. I like the idea of burning the holes, so that the fabric does not fray.
We have couple of old farming fields 100 miles from home, so I can get there only during weekends and do not want to spend the time weeding. The black plastic has proven to be a savior and I use it for most of the plants. This year I want to try it also with potatoes. Our summers are not really hot and even we have long daylight time, the sun shines at low angle that there is no risk of the soil getting too hot.

I do also have a plan to cover parts of the field with silage tarp to smother the weeds from the areas where I want to move my veggie plot in future.

The soil here is still frozen and my garlic is just sprouting, so I enjoy watching the photos of your garlic field in full growth. It will be interesting to find out which way you will find to work for the harvest. My beds are such that I can loosen the soil from both sides with a pitchfork before pulling the garlic. The plastic which I use, stretches and I can pull the garlic through the holes unless the clay soil is clinging on the roots as a big clumps. The holes get a bit bigger every year, but with care I have used same plastic now for three seasons.

Sari

Great info, thanks Sari!

Looks like a good plan. I'm guessing your scapes will show in late May with harvest the end of June or so. Tail off on the water a couple weeks before you harvest.

You're right, if you take the tops off this will affect dry time and long term storage. But since this crop is going into next years seed it might not matter.

You have reduced the labor involved in planting, but the digging, curing and getting your crop ready to market can't be shortcuted. Keep the pictures coming. They look great.

Thanks BJB.
I was thinking end of June too.

I am very curious/anxious about the harvest/curing/storage part. I am fully anticipating this step as the only bottleneck to larger future production.
My plan is to hire some seasonal temp helpers and set up some stations that favor efficiency and work flow along with ergonomics so that nobody is hurting after trimming and sizing for a few hours at a time.
I plan on tying the tops into bunches of 10 bulbs and hanging them on wires in my pole barn which has two giant openings at opposite ends (no doors) for air flow.
I will keep updating here as we move through the next stages.

I fertigated (might be the last one now that we are in May) on Friday. In two days, it was noticeable and they clearly got bigger. The Romanian Red from jumbo seed bulbs are outstanding. The stems are like tree trunks.

May 1, 2017 Jumbo Romanian Red

[ATTACH]72247[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]72243[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]72244[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]72245[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]72246[/ATTACH]

May 1, 2017 Music Large Seed Bulbs

[ATTACH]72248[/ATTACH]

Looking great!

Impossible to look more healthy than those plants. And this is your first year at large scale garlic? I bet everyone says you got the touch, and true, but few would understand the thought that goes into this stuff.

Thanks guys.
Yeah, its taken more years of failure than successes. The garlic has just come at a time where I had a good handle on things in general going into planting.
And then the many many hours reading up on garlic, soils, cover crops, fertilizers, and fertigation.

your gonna need a backhoe to get all that into the barn on time. nice job. looking good.