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Post by canadamike on Jan 30, 2010 14:10:57 GMT -5
Using garlic scapes as a source of renewal for disease free plants is apparently very effective, according to canadian growers. Of course it takes time, but apparently it also help get bigger bulbs. I do not grow enough garlic to get into this myself, but I have friends who do.
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Post by ottawagardener on Jan 30, 2010 15:25:14 GMT -5
I'd be interested in using the scape bulblets but I have leek moth here - grrr - introduced pest that has not integrated itself into the ecosystem yet, ie. it destroys my leeks and scapes though the garlic bulbs are fine. I have yet to encounter any more serious pests to garlic luckily.
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Post by canadamike on Jan 30, 2010 16:50:25 GMT -5
Against insect pests, it is often recommended to use garlic spray   |
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Post by seedywen on Jan 30, 2010 18:18:48 GMT -5
Milk spray, you say?
Since I keep three dairy does, will try the milk spray, if and when, garlic rust appears again. Didn't even know garlic could get rust.
To get various rusts on several trees around here plus raspberries, hollyhocks and other members of the malva family but garlic?
None of the gardeners and farmers that I know in my area, have ever had this disease.
Then when researching on the internet read what Patrick mentioned about the California commercial crop getting wiped out, with no effective treatment possible, got to wondering if my garlic growing days were numbered.
BTW never had any disease in my garlic crop before this rust business. And I loooooooooooove garlic!
Harvested and ate a number of the larger bulbs of the infected plants. They were slightly immature but quite fine. Usually I supply other people, with seed garlic but didn't let one bulb off my property and didn't save any for myself for the next years crop either.
Could have possibly try saving scapes, for re-propagation. However I was still apprehensive of spreading the disease after it happened. How long until full-size bulbs are attained via this method?
A commercial grower-friend of mine got White Rot in his crop one year and that pretty much finished his commercial growing days. His experience strengthened by my resolve to continue systemic rotation.
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Post by canadamike on Jan 30, 2010 18:45:04 GMT -5
3 years
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Post by mjc on Jan 30, 2010 18:59:43 GMT -5
Milk spray, you say? Since I keep three dairy does, will try the milk spray, if and when, garlic rust appears again. Didn't even know garlic could get rust. To get various rusts on several trees around here plus raspberries, hollyhocks and other members of the malva family but garlic? Using a milk spray to combat fungus/rust infestations MUST start before the plants become infected...it is a great preventative, but, by itself, is not strong enough to really do much once the plants are infected. It also needs to be applied regularly throughout the growing season. Some recommend an alternating schedule, one week spray with milk and the next use baking soda. Slightly soured milk seems to be better than fresh. Low or nonfat milk better than whole. It is most efficacious on powdery mildew, rusts and other fungal type infections (seems to have little or no impact on late blight, though) and it seems to work better on some families than others (cucurbits, rose and legumes are the ones that seem to have had the most testing done on them). Plus, it does have some benefit as a foliar fertilizer, so even if the rust doesn't come back, it won't hurt to be spraying with it, any way. |
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Post by mnjrutherford on Mar 13, 2010 10:10:49 GMT -5
Could I literally just pour some milk (diluted or not?) into a spray bottle and spray it on the greens?
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Post by mjc on Mar 13, 2010 10:41:19 GMT -5
Yep...that's it.
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Post by mnjrutherford on Mar 13, 2010 14:14:56 GMT -5
I'll be darned. Somehow, that just seems to be to easy to be legal... Now then, my alliums (onions, shallots, and garlic) were planted back in November and I think Pugs garlic went down in the first week of December. Some of the leaves are starting to have a touch of yellow to them. Mainly the onions, shallots, and Pre-Pugs garlic. No sign of disease at all. Should I make an application just in case? I don't know if there is any history of rust in the area or not.
I'm also wondering if I'm getting close to harvest time.
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Post by ottawagardener on Mar 13, 2010 17:16:11 GMT -5
Har har hardy har har Michel.
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Post by mnjrutherford on Apr 12, 2010 16:59:55 GMT -5
OK, so, my garlic is growing great right now and all is well. I've put out an additional 2 lbs of yellow onion sets and I'll do 2 lbs of whites before the end of the week (I hope). I need to start the milk spray... BUT, here is the pressing question... onion harvest....  This was planted out as a set mid October, 2009 (MAYBE November?). I dug it up today to see how it's doing, it's April 12, 2010. As you can see, the bulb is barely starting to develop and this is one of the largest onions in the garden. Am I being impatient and just need to wait longer? Is this as large as I can expect an onion to grow from a set? It's a nice enough onion and has a wonderful fragrance. But I really use a lot of onions and I need them to be MUCH bigger than this. |
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Post by mjc on Apr 12, 2010 17:06:12 GMT -5
Yes, you are being impatient...in your area, they probably won't be ready for at least another six weeks (June). Nine months for fall planted onions... 4 or more for spring planted ones.
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Post by mnjrutherford on Apr 12, 2010 17:37:55 GMT -5
ahHA! WHEW! I was sure hoping that was the answer! Thank a million MJC! ;D
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Post by mnjrutherford on Apr 15, 2010 18:27:17 GMT -5
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Post by mnjrutherford on May 2, 2010 4:51:23 GMT -5
APPROACHING HARVEST?
GARLIC - The very bottom leaf of nearly all the GRIN garlic and some of the store bought that was planted simultaneously, is completely shriveled and dried up. The next leaf up is also approaching the same condition and the tips of some of the other leaves are beginning to show some yellow. However, there is not a scape in sight on any of the plants. I was under the impression that the scapes were an important signal of impending harvest? Should I consider pulling a single plant to use as a gauge for making the decision to begin harvesting?
SHALLOTS - These appear to still be growing like crazy. I scrape the top of the earth around them just enough to cut off the weeds that might be growing around them. There are some leaf tips that are beginning to yellow.
ONIONS - There are flowers starting to come up. Will allowing the flowers to bloom and produce seed negatively effect the quality of my onions? Or should I cut them off? If I cut them off, can they be eaten like garlic scapes? I have had no luck thus far, planting onion seed. Could I perhaps use these seed to produce my own onion sets? If so, how?
COMMON CHIVES - These are blooming like crazy and the flowers are now beginning to dry out. When is the optimum moment to gather the seed? Also, these are growing in a box with thyme. When I divide the thyme, might I also divide the clump of chives as well? Could one eat the whole chive? Does the bulb have a nice flavor?
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