Market Farming

["Marlin Burkholder" <glenecofarm AT planetcomm.net>]

This spring I grew one of my best garlic crops ever.  I had mulched it over
winter, kept good moisture in the soil despite the relatively dry
conditions, and it sized up really nice.  As far as I can tell, I harvested
it at the right stage and cured it properly, keeping it in the coolest and
dryest spot I could provide in the airy loft of an old outbuilding.  Yet
when I brought it out of storage recently I notice many of the bulbs have
shrunken sides and, when opened, have cloves that are soft and deteriorating
to a shriveled state.  I have not seen any maggots which I understand can be
a problem if garlic has been left in the ground too long after maturing. I
usually see a few bad bulbs most years but this is enough that it leaves me
a little disappointed.

Also my wife ambitiously planted a nice patch of rhubarb last year and by
this spring had it growing nicely and was confident that it was going to do
good for her.  I've been noticing recently that the stand has been looking a
little sparse from a distance and now she reports that she has found a
number of crowns that have completely rotted away.

Actually two years ago I started moving my rhubarb roots to a new patch,
because it had been dying out for me.  Now this evening I actually saw where
two large root clumps, of what had been rhubarb this spring,  were composted
and a few sowbugs and millipedes remained to finish the job.  Just now I
read in a book that crown rot roots should be dug up and burned.  Oh dear!

To us this kind of thing is acceptable if we are newbees, but when we think
we have done things right and it still screws up,  it hurts a little.

Still needing to learn.
Marlin Burkholder