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Old August 8, 2017   #20
bower
Tomatovillian™
 
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Join Date: Feb 2012
Location: Newfoundland, Canada
Posts: 6,793
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Thanks all!
@ sari, yes, I think the alcohol dip is going to be routine from now on. We did it at the farm as well, and it's not a huge amount of trouble for a small guarantee against tiny pests. For myself, the big jar of old tincture I used has been set aside and labeled for the garlic dipping purpose, so it won't be an expense.
I'll be taking a closer look for any tiny pests when these have cured a bit. What I saw on the outside were some rusty colored spots and in a couple of cases bigger bites that could easily be the start of wireworm damage as I found on my softneck in the same bed. Since I don't see any actual mites this time I took another google search and it looks like the rusty brown color could be Fusarium spores, so I'll be reading up about that too. Maybe fusarium is the first microbe to arrive when the garlic is bitten, no matter who bites it. I just want to be knowledgeable about every pest or problem I can have, and keep my precious garlic stock in the best shape possible.
@oakley I think you're right that garlic is one of those things often seized at the border. There are a number of seed garlic suppliers across Canada as I've seen online, but none in the province. I think you have to watch closely and place an order as soon as stock becomes available because they do sell out quickly. Back in the days before internet, we just didn't have access to garlic stock at all. But nowadays garlic is being grown by more people, and as I mentioned, I even have one strain that came from Bonavista rounds. So local garlic could be used for seed when it turns up in the farmer's market.
My Music stock I grew up from bulbils I got from a local grower's scapes. He's been growing and maintaining this strain for well over a decade, maybe two, and they live in an area that is low lying and moist so I value his advice as much as I do his garlic! I have another crop of these coming up from the bulbils so I should have enough to share with you in a couple of years if all goes well. The Argentina was a windfall of leftover cracked and soaked seed garlic after helping to plant at the farm. It originally came from Nova Scotia not from a commercial source but as a gift from a friend. Other seed stocks from the farm either as scapes/bulbils or leftover cloves were purchased a few years ago from a farm in Nova Scotia - will see if I can remember the name or find them online. And I have others growing up from bulbils I got through Nicky's pan-Canadian swap.
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