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  • From: Etienne Goyer <etienne.goyer AT outlands.ca>
  • To: market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Garlic
  • Date: Mon, 28 Nov 2011 13:25:03 -0500

Nothing scientific either, but I did a survey of growers around me, and
I have had about 50/50 mulching vs. no-mulch. Apparently, the main
benefit of mulch around here is heave protection in case of warm spell
in January and February.

In my case, I could not find organic straw that was weed-free enough for
my taste around here, so I decided to go no-mulch. I planted the clove
about 4" deep, precisely to avoid heaving. I am worried that it will
make the harvest more difficult, as my soil is quite heavy. We will see.

I am fortunate enough that my field is not very weedy (for now!). I was
planing on hand/hoe weeding my garlic beds every other weeks until a
month before harvest, about around the time of garlic scape. I have
only about 400' of bed this year, so it should not be too much of a
chore. Again, we'll see how that work next summer.

This is my first year growing garlic, so do not take the above as advice.


On 11-11-28 12:29 PM, Shoemaker, William H wrote:
> Sorry Kathryn, I should've elaborated. Our focus was on winter
> protection and possible improvements in bulb size. We didn't see that.
> We eliminated weed control as a treatment to keep the study simple and
> focused. Hand-weeding essentially kept pace in the bare ground treatment
> with the straw-mulched treatments. We had the cloves planted fairly
> deep, about 4", and the planting went in about the second week of
> October. Both treatments performed well so we concluded (with room for
> more research) that the mulch had limited impact on bulb size at
> harvest. This could certainly be investigated in other places with
> different results.
>
>
>
> Bill
>
> William H. Shoemaker
>
> University of Illinois, Crop Sciences
>
> St Charles Horticulture Research Center
>
> 535 Randall Road, St Charles, IL 60174
>
> 630-584-7254, wshoemak AT illinois.edu <mailto:wshoemak AT illinois.edu>
>
> *From:* market-farming-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org
> [market-farming-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org] on behalf of KAKerby AT aol.com
> [KAKerby AT aol.com]
> *Sent:* Monday, November 28, 2011 11:18 AM
> *To:* market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org
> *Subject:* Re: [Market-farming] Garlic
>
> I was always under the impression that mulch helped minimize frost-heave
> for fall plantings, and minimized weed competition during the growing
> season. In your study, were those concerns not really an issue? Here,
> we don't have a major issue with frost heave but we do have issues with
> weeds totally smothering the garlic if we don't mulch. So I was
> surprised your findings didn't see any benefit. Care to elaborate?
> Kathryn Kerby
> frogchorusfarm.com
> Snohomish, WA
> Ruminations - essays on the farming life at frogchorusfarm.com/weblog.html
>
> In a message dated 11/28/2011 9:16:04 A.M. Pacific Standard Time,
> wshoemak AT illinois.edu writes:
>
> I don't think so. It'll help the plants push roots later too. We did
> a study one year looking at mulching vs no mulch. We didn't see much
> benefit but we didn't see any problems from the mulch either. Kind
> of what we expected.
>
>
>
> Bill
>
> William H. Shoemaker
>
> University of Illinois, Crop Sciences
>
> St Charles Horticulture Research Center
>
> 535 Randall Road, St Charles, IL 60174
>
> 630-584-7254, wshoemak AT illinois.edu <mailto:wshoemak AT illinois.edu>
>
> *From:* market-farming-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org
> [market-farming-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org] on behalf of Mac
> [gofish54 AT centurytel.net]
> *Sent:* Monday, November 28, 2011 10:12 AM
> *To:* Market Farming
> *Subject:* Re: [Market-farming] Garlic
>
> I have always grown garlic in beds at our home. This year I planted
> a bed out at the farm and mulched it heavily ( 6"-8") because it
> was very dry and I wanted to maintain as much moisture as possible
> from our watering at planting. Is this too much mulch?
>
> Mac
>
>
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