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market-farming - [Market-farming] Late garlic advice please

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  • From: "Beth Spaugh" <lists AT rhomestead.com>
  • To: "'Market Farming'" <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [Market-farming] Late garlic advice please
  • Date: Mon, 26 Nov 2007 19:39:15 -0500

I have truly beautiful, huge seed garlic this year. It is my 5th year of
saving garlic seed. I put off planting because the field was tile drained
last Friday. I hoped there would be space to just go in and plant the garlic
afterward, even if I had to skip the tile ridges. It is torn up enough that
it really needs to be disked next spring before planting, and I even think
I'll dig up the remaining perennial flowers then to make the field work
easier/more uniform. Which leaves me with unplanted garlic. And the ground
freezing. And no weed free spots other than the field.

I see three options and would appreciate advice from those with any
experience in these.

1. Plant them in the hoophouse right along the outside walls. There is some
space I can free up there. I could plant enough for seed next year and maybe
personal use.
2. Roll up the black landscape cloth that is on the south outside of the
hoophouse and plant there. It is pure sand, but I do have 50 lbs of Fertrell
fertilizer. Would be low pH in the sand probably. Have a little lime which
might react some by spring.
3. See what lasts over winter and plant it in the spring, having then
selected for long-storage.

I expect that options 2 and 3 will yield small bulbs, but I would hopefully
be saving good genetics. I am wondering if the warmer temperatures in the
hoophouse will mess it up. I don't think it will be any warmer any earlier
than if we were in the Carolinas.

Thank you for your help.


Beth Spaugh
Rehoboth Homestead
Peru NY
http://rhomestead.com

~Without power over our food, any notion of democracy is empty. Francis
Moore Lappe






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