Planting garlic tomorrow?

[littleminnie]

As with every year my garlic planting is a huge hassle and likely to be very difficult. My tiller wouldn't start yesterday to finish prepping the 3 beds for garlic planting Tuesday. My husband could not start it today so I found a small engine repairman on my street and dropped it off. I said if he could figure out something obvious let me know right away and then I could get it, till, and bring it back for a needed tune up. He hasn't called back so I assume it actually needs repair.:mad:

So I have 3 beds that need prepping. The one where the tomatoes were is pretty ready since there are no weeds and it only needs the manure worked in some. The other 2 beds were entirely beans and I raked them yesterday and meant to till in the bean plants well for nitrogen. However I think now I can either borrow my friend's tiller which is a pain to get in and out of the trunk, or dig and rake the beds by hand.

Also it is supposed to be nice out tomorrow but by Thursday it is going to turn cold so I really wanted to get it planted tomorrow. Additionally I am fighting my hub's cold and have such a sore throat right now I just want to spit instead of swallowing. See every year garlic planting is a b***h!

I broke down all the bulbs tonight. We had asters yellows in MN this winter that affected everyone's garlic. I culled out the bad ones as best I could. Simonetti showed almost no bad bulbs and they are huge.



Here are some of the cloves ready to make huge bulbs next year!


Here is my piles of bulbs in the basement. I like to mush them with my foot to break them open.



I now have 1030 cloves ready to plant and the rest of the beds will be shallots. I have 3 types of shallots to plant. I think I will separate each variety with shallots so I can keep them straight! I will put in markers too.

Here are my varieties. I had one bulb only of Metechi left and it was heavily infected and so I am back to 15 varieties again.
Simonetti (the king!) 528
Inchellium 38
Chinese Pink (very good variety) 46
Nootka Rose 45
Red Toch 28
Transylvania (also good) 150

hardnecks:
German 14
Siberian 12
Rosewood 9
Purple Glazer 32
Korean MT 13
Tzan (the only new variety I could find at the garlic festival) 7
Thai 22
Music 42
Chesnok Red 44
Previously Chesnok was one of my very favorites but it succumbed badly to Asters Yellows and I barely had 44 clean cloves! I will be short on hardnecks this year (not even 1/3). Hopefully MN will not get a garlic disease again since it is to be snowy and cold this winter like normal. Then I can rebuild my stock and have enough to sell.

I posted this at idig too. I am doing a Gixx.

[littleminnie]

Planting garlic/shallots Friday?
I got my tiller back and just got to be able to breathe normally and stop coughing then I can plant in the high of 40 degree days! yeah

Who is into soaking the cloves in compost tea before planting?

[gixxerific]

Doing a Gixx is that a bad thing? ;D

I though about soaking mine but I didn't. I never had before and have never had problems. This is an excerpt from that site.

When your soil is fully ready to be planted, take the bulbs you want to plant and break them apart into their individual cloves (Being sure to keep each variety separate from others. Soak each varieties' cloves in water containing one heaping tablespoon of bicarbonate of soda (baking soda) and liquid seaweed per gallon to protect them from fungus as well as give them an energy boost. Leave the cloves in the soda water overnight or long enough for the clove covers to loosen so the liquid comes into contact with the surfaces of the cloves. Garlics clove covers can contain fungal spores, or conidia or the eggs of pests such as mites and are best discarded rather than planted since the first thing the cloves do is to shed them, anyway. The baking soda helps neutralize the fungi. Commercial growers don't have time to peel cloves bare but gardeners do. Peeling the cloves has another advantage in that you can see if they have any problems and if they do, discard them and plant only the best cloves in order to harvest the best garlic. If you can't see what the cloves really look like it is easy to plant bad cloves thinking they are good and wind up with a bad harvest the following year.


The cloves should then be soaked in rubbing alcohol or 100 proof vodka for three or four minutes and then planted immediately. The alcohol kills pests and pest eggs and any pathogens the first soaking missed. Every time I have done this, the treated garlic turned out better than the untreated control group. Alcohols are on the National Organic Program accepted list and baking soda is accepted under part 205.605.

[littleminnie]

Great idea, especially because of the Asters Yellows here. I still have some cloves that stink with it and I am trying to not plant them. So a baking soda and compost tea soak, then a quick dip in alcohol. I think we just have peroxide but that would do it too. If my cold improves tomorrow I will soak overnight and then grab the peroxide Friday AM.

[steev]

As for the vodka, well, you could discard it, but if you have a cold, what could it hurt?

[littleminnie]

If I wanted to imbibe we have vodka, scotch and beer here always. Hub likes his fancy drinks.

Well it was cold, snowy and windy here today while I stayed in and tried to get rid of my cold. I am hoping I can handle tilling, composting, tilling and planting tomorrow. I doubt it will be a good thing for me now but I am busy on the weekend. I forgot we have a concert Sunday and SIL/BIL are staying overnight. That means cleaning Saturday too. So I better make that hot toddy and rest up!

[YoungAllotmenteer]

That's fascinating about planting peeled cloves - Everything I have always read has said very definitely not to peel the cloves! (I am talking about the last layer of papery skin before the flesh of the clove).

[Drahkk]

Probably because folks were doing more harm than good trying to get that last layer off with their fingernails, and the uninitiated aren't patient enough to soak overnight, so it's easier to just recommend not peeling.

MB

[littleminnie]

Well I was worried about soaking last night because if I wasn't feeling good enough to plant today it would be a problem. And yes my cold is sort of worse today having moved south into my lungs like colds like to do. So I am bummed and trying not to worry about when I will get them planted. I do it late every year. I am thinking it might be Tuesday which is a week after I meant to do it, but it is supposed to be nice that day. Maybe I will feel good enough to go till today but as of now all I can think about is going back to bed. Oh well. It will get done!

[ferdzy]

Sorry you are sick, Minnie. Maybe you can get someone to make you a big pot of honey-lemon-ginger tea. Good for what ails you! But get well soon, however you do it.

[Joseph Lofthouse]

I figure that any time the ground isn't frozen is a great time to plant garlic: September to March.

[bunkie]

sending you some 'healing' vibes minnie!

we're just waiting a bit on the weather here, too, to put our garlic in...next week for sure!

[synergy]

Wow, thank you everyone for that education. I read it after the fact as I had just planted all my acquired red russian cloves for the season in my beds and tucked them under asian green transplants I am trying to get a nice crop of for my table before the hardest part of winter. Next year I will follow the advice given here .

[littleminnie]

Feel better today. I got the house cleaned, groceries and went outside for a while. It was cool but nice out. I will till tomorrow afternoon but don't have time to plant because we have concert tickets- concert on a work night like some 20 somethings! ;D All this upcoming week is to be nice and I can get my outside stuff all done and prep for an indoor market held Saturday morning. Maybe I can wash the veg Friday without my hands freezing. So all is good but one week late.
I have the garlic ready to soak Monday night but cannot get all the cloves mixed up. I poked holes in the bags and will keep them in the bags in a big tub filled with compost tea and baking soda I guess.

[littleminnie]

I got this done yesterday before the concert.

I am leaving the tiller tracks as a trench for planting. I am doing 6 staggered rows and 3 drip tape lines.