Post by blueadzuki on Apr 23, 2013 14:02:31 GMT -5
Hi all
Well, with "spring" here (laughing bitterly) I have been spending the last few days checking over my alliums and seeing how everything is progressing (the alliums being pretty much the only thing I can overwinter and hence the only thing that is already out there when spring springs.)
Rakkyo (Allium chinense ). Almost a total washout. I was sure I would have a pretty good rakkyo crop since I know it can take the winter cold (At least, it did last year) But it turns out what it CAN'T take is what it got this year, extreme long term cold combined with constant wetness;. Nearly every bulb simply rotted, either at the grow plate (where the roots come out) or in the roots themselves (or, usually, both). Out of the 72 or so bulbs that went in, only about 3-6 actually made it through the winter, and they all basically have exausted their food reserves so that they are now bulbless (which is fine if things out here stay stable or get warmer, but if we wind up getting another cold dip strong enough to actually kill everything to ground level again, they're sunk.) They also seem to have divided unsually early (which is why the number is imprecises, as I re planted them to give them more space, I divided those clusters that were divisible. and heavily (normally rakkyo divides in 2 or very rarely 3 near the end of the growing year, these are divinding into 4-5)
Common Garlic. Also not a great start. A lot of them rotted out as well so I've probably got about 30 or so sprouts left. That's enough to be adequate down the road but normally I like to overplant my garlic; so I can "thin it" and indulge my love of eating garlic greens at the same time. With only 30 I can't really do that; if I eat the amount of green garic I normally do, all the plants will be gone in one meal. Guess I'll have to plant some "sacrafice" heads (cloves planted specifically to be eaten green, so they never have a chance to make a bulb) Actually I may have to do both since the other thing this year seems to have taught is that it is likey that garlic is for me a zero sum crop. That is I can plant it and I can grow it but at the end of the year I might as well eat it all. Of those cloves that did survived I note that NONE of them were the re-planted rounds I got off what I grew last year (remember; those itsy bitsy things I took the scan of) Apparantly, garlic around here just doesn't put enough bulk on in one year to have enough energy to make it through the winter. So unless I want to try digging the tiny things up at the end of fall, curing them holding them inside over the winter then re planting them in the warm spring weather and hope they star re photosythesizing almost immediately, and repeating that every year for about a decade before there is even a CHANCE of them putting on enough bulk to even think of making eating any of them worthwhile ( the rounds I got last year at their biggest were about 1/5 to 1/4 the mass of the cloves I planted to get them, and at least some of it's probably that stuff I had that "broke" as soon as the mass was about marble sized) it actually may be more effcient to simply assume I'll need to get fresh cloves to plant every year (as least, while I can)
Minor alliums Here at least the news is pretty good, All of the minor alliums I got from heirloomonions.com are doing pretty well (well except for the sand leek, I think it needed sandier soil). The rosy garlic is stable, the moly is growing and one of the Naples onions actually has a flower but
further updates as they come in
Well, with "spring" here (laughing bitterly) I have been spending the last few days checking over my alliums and seeing how everything is progressing (the alliums being pretty much the only thing I can overwinter and hence the only thing that is already out there when spring springs.)
Rakkyo (Allium chinense ). Almost a total washout. I was sure I would have a pretty good rakkyo crop since I know it can take the winter cold (At least, it did last year) But it turns out what it CAN'T take is what it got this year, extreme long term cold combined with constant wetness;. Nearly every bulb simply rotted, either at the grow plate (where the roots come out) or in the roots themselves (or, usually, both). Out of the 72 or so bulbs that went in, only about 3-6 actually made it through the winter, and they all basically have exausted their food reserves so that they are now bulbless (which is fine if things out here stay stable or get warmer, but if we wind up getting another cold dip strong enough to actually kill everything to ground level again, they're sunk.) They also seem to have divided unsually early (which is why the number is imprecises, as I re planted them to give them more space, I divided those clusters that were divisible. and heavily (normally rakkyo divides in 2 or very rarely 3 near the end of the growing year, these are divinding into 4-5)
Common Garlic. Also not a great start. A lot of them rotted out as well so I've probably got about 30 or so sprouts left. That's enough to be adequate down the road but normally I like to overplant my garlic; so I can "thin it" and indulge my love of eating garlic greens at the same time. With only 30 I can't really do that; if I eat the amount of green garic I normally do, all the plants will be gone in one meal. Guess I'll have to plant some "sacrafice" heads (cloves planted specifically to be eaten green, so they never have a chance to make a bulb) Actually I may have to do both since the other thing this year seems to have taught is that it is likey that garlic is for me a zero sum crop. That is I can plant it and I can grow it but at the end of the year I might as well eat it all. Of those cloves that did survived I note that NONE of them were the re-planted rounds I got off what I grew last year (remember; those itsy bitsy things I took the scan of) Apparantly, garlic around here just doesn't put enough bulk on in one year to have enough energy to make it through the winter. So unless I want to try digging the tiny things up at the end of fall, curing them holding them inside over the winter then re planting them in the warm spring weather and hope they star re photosythesizing almost immediately, and repeating that every year for about a decade before there is even a CHANCE of them putting on enough bulk to even think of making eating any of them worthwhile ( the rounds I got last year at their biggest were about 1/5 to 1/4 the mass of the cloves I planted to get them, and at least some of it's probably that stuff I had that "broke" as soon as the mass was about marble sized) it actually may be more effcient to simply assume I'll need to get fresh cloves to plant every year (as least, while I can)
Minor alliums Here at least the news is pretty good, All of the minor alliums I got from heirloomonions.com are doing pretty well (well except for the sand leek, I think it needed sandier soil). The rosy garlic is stable, the moly is growing and one of the Naples onions actually has a flower but
further updates as they come in
