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  • From: Alliums <garlicgrower AT earthlink.net>
  • To: Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [Market-farming] Re:not too late for Garlic
  • Date: Wed, 22 Dec 2004 13:12:52 -0500

Toni wrote:
For once this year, i did get most all of the garlics and onions in on
time - just five varieties left to go. I am having a big allium year in
2005, with some 29 cultivars of garlic in and 4 new multiplying
onions......the few i have left to plant are smaller sorts and some
landrace type.

Are you finding multipliers worth selling or are you just doing 4 types because alliums just beg to be collected? (speaking as a compulsive alliums collector ;-D) Personally, I find them great for personal use -- especially as green onions during the winter, but I can't imagine people paying for them. . .


fall......then received an email on a list that stated that after DNA
testing- there are only really 7 kinds out there!!! As a collector, I do
not want to believe that :-)

To my knowledge, not enough DNA fingerprinting has been done to be able to make this statement, although I personally believe that USDA needs to be pressured and pressured *HARD* to do this testing. There are over 800 garlics in the US -- we know at least 1/3 to 1/2 are duplicates -- some of them multiple duplicates, so for garlic to be a viable money-making crop in the US (which it should be), this DNA work really needs to be done.

I tend to agree with other grower/collectors who believe that there are probably no more than 5 to 7 "types" of garlic and while Ron Engleland has done amazing work, his divisions probably aren't completely accurate and should be backed up with DNA work. It will drastically cut down the work that people like me do in trialing, but with over 800 named varieties, not to mention the unnamed that are just "out there," the work just needs to be done and done accurately.

As i use raised berm-style beds, drainage isn't
a problem and i can plant when most others around here are lamenting
about mud.

Raised beds/berms are the best way to grow garlic. I create raised beds by taking the floor sweepings of the local horse boarding stable and except for the wood ashes, I never need to add another soil amendment. I've also started putting a planting of summer squash, cucumbers and transplants of watermelon (the melons mature too late to sell, but are still great as gifts to folks who help out at the community garden) in the beds as I take the garlic out -- this sucks out the last of the "overnitrogen" in the beds such that the next year, I can grow anything in that area the next year.


I made friends with an allium grower from OK at the Appalachian Heirloom
Seed Conservancy Conference in Berea this fall and was surprised to see
him hand my daughter labeled bags of each kind he brought to the
conference - after i had treated myself to 5 new kinds from his
collection ( he was selling).

I am so jealous. My Seed Saver Exchange Colleague didn't go to any grower conferences this year, so I didn't get any free samples from the major collectors this year. I did get a package in the mail from a SSE member near Cornell that is garlic his grandfather just found growing on the property -- it's *not* a purple stripe like most of these Northeastern "found" garlics tend to be, so I'm interested in how it will turn out. At least I know it's cold-hardy! ;-)

Dorene

Dorene Pasekoff, Coordinator
St. John's United Church of Christ Organic Community Garden and Labyrinth

A mission of
St. John's United Church of Christ, 315 Gay Street, Phoenixville, PA 19460





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