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Post by Walk on May 30, 2013 14:44:49 GMT -5
After last year's Midwestern U.S. near total crop infection with aster yellows, I'm wondering what the initial reports are on this year's crop? I did a blog posting about our experience. s119396054.onlinehome.us/ Would like to know how this is affecting others. |
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on May 30, 2013 16:10:06 GMT -5
Yellow Asters doesn't seem to be present in my garlic. I hardly ever see a leaf hopper. I was worried about it because I imported so much foreign garlic into my garden last fall. Fortunately, most of my imports came from the pacific northwest. The 2012 outbreak seems to have been prevalent in the upper-midwest.
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Post by ferdzy on May 31, 2013 10:14:55 GMT -5
Didn't have that here, thank goodness. Sounds awful. I hope you can replace your variety.
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Post by littleminnie on Jun 18, 2013 22:36:38 GMT -5
I am so excited to read your blog! As of this week I have confirmed I still have a problem with it. Now I am dreading how much I will have to spend to buy all new stock in fall and how long it will take to get the amount I want again!!!    So funny how I made almost the exact same calls on everything. Last year I sold some, stopped, threw out or consumed some, and saved the best for replanting. I only bought about 6 bulbs new at the garlic festival. Then I took the best in fall and soaked in alcohol/vodka and baking soda. Planted in the best soil and covered in straw. I divided varieties with shallots. So this spring it seemed like some weren't emerging right away...then got a bad feeling... then saw yellowing of some leaves... then it became apparent there was trouble. The shallots are awesome BTW. I will have some garlic to harvest and give to CSAs and probably sell but will not replant any of it! I will start looking real soon for deals for fall. Please everyone let me know the best place for good prices! |
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Post by Walk on Jun 19, 2013 8:03:58 GMT -5
Hi Little Minnie,
Sorry to hear that you had garlic woes also. Our friends in Menomonie, Wisconsin missed this disease last year. I thought that perhaps they were far enough north to have escaped it, but you're even farther north. I guess they just lucked out.
We had some business dealings with a commercial garlic farm in California (they are building a very large solar food dryer for their garlic culls and they bought stainless steel screen from us). Anyway, we plan on getting a couple of their varieties to try as their crop wasn't impacted last year. A market grower in our area is also looking for 2-400 pounds of planting stock so I imagine that it will be a scramble this fall to acquire. Best to order early. I haven't heard of any problems with the western crops other than that they won't be acclimated to our climate. What a sad, sad loss of genetic diversity.
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Post by littleminnie on Jun 19, 2013 20:49:01 GMT -5
1 hour north and then straight west.   This is what my 3 garlic beds look like, but much of what you see are shallots. Now I understand why some garlic didn't come up at all. So do you think We Grow Garlic in Wisconsin is safe? Most of my original seed stock is from there. I really like Simonetti and Chesnok Red that I got from them. I got Chinese Pink from Territorial. I have a lot to replace. I planted over 1000 bulbs. My goal was to increase this fall and be able to sell at the garlic festival next year but now that is some ways off. Any recommendations of where to order from would be appreciated. |
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Jun 19, 2013 22:17:23 GMT -5
Wishing we had a garlic festival... Here's what my production garlic patch looked like a couple days ago. Almost ready to harvest. If there's a space in a row where no garlic is growing, it's because we tend to plant bulb-to-row so that we can evaluate each mother plant. That helps us decide which to save for re-planting.  |
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Post by steev on Jun 19, 2013 22:49:30 GMT -5
Looks like you are indeed fortunate and productive.
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Post by Walk on Jun 20, 2013 7:47:56 GMT -5
Joseph, I'm impressed/envious with your garlic patch. Hopefully, ours will look that good again next year.
Little Minnie, your garlic looks every bit as bad as ours. We just dug up some more of the sickly looking plants and the roots are rotted off. On the plus side, one of our old varieties, an unknown name porcelain-type, is sending up its scapes. Last year we hardly got any scapes from any of our garlic which is apparently because the aster yellows disease really attacks the flowering stalk. So I'm thinking that if the plants can produce healthy scapes, and there's no sign of disease when they're harvested, we should be able to use them for planting stock, although I'll probably keep them isolated from other varieties for another year.
I'm not sure that any Midwestern source is completely clear of this disease if their source material was grown in the region last year. I did talk to someone at SSE and they are keeping a close watch on their plantings, but she didn't indicate if they have found anything to be concerned about yet. Last year they were one of the first to post about the problem so I'll keep my eye out for any news.
If I had to get a commercial quantity of garlic for planting, I'd probably be contacting growers now and having a conversation with them, then make a decision to buy now to get at or near the head of the line. I used to work for a large organic vegetable farm and remember that even several years ago it was often difficult to get enough planting stock. I can only imagine what it will be like now.
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Post by littleminnie on Jun 25, 2013 22:41:42 GMT -5
Since I haven't bought garlic for some years I need to know about pricing and what is good pricing. We Grow Garlic sells by the count at 5 bulbs for 12.50 with deals on that I think (they are not up for season yet). Most other people sell by the pound. I never counted what made up a pound. So please help me get a good deal. If I wanted to splurge and get my stock back up to 1000 bulbs in 2014 I would need 100 bulbs or so. That would be $250 from WGG in Wisconsin.
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Jun 25, 2013 23:07:47 GMT -5
Since I haven't bought garlic for some years I need to know about pricing and what is good pricing. We Grow Garlic sells by the count at 5 bulbs for 12.50 with deals on that I think (they are not up for season yet). Most other people sell by the pound. I never counted what made up a pound. So please help me get a good deal. If I wanted to splurge and get my stock back up to 1000 bulbs in 2014 I would need 100 bulbs or so. That would be $250 from WGG in Wisconsin. At my local farmer's market, garlic sells for a maximum of $1.25 per bulb, or for smaller bulbs which are often sold by the bag it's around $6 per pound. [And no shipping costs.] I realize that you are in an area that was hit hard by Aster Yellows, but your fields are already infected, so I don't know that importing garlic from far away would be any better than buying local. Depends on the variety, but a typical garlic clove weighs around 5 grams, so that comes out at around 90 cloves per pound. If dealing with soft-necks there's that little clump in the center that might have 8 tiny cloves. I typically don't plant those. I have been pleased with how robustly some of the garlic bulbils grew for me. They produced 5 - 8 gram rounds capable of producing full sized bulbs next summer. Growing bulbils would be a great way to dramatically increase the number of garlic plants. It just takes an extra year. |
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Post by 12540dumont on Jun 26, 2013 11:23:35 GMT -5
I have had nothing but trouble with garlic from Territorial. I have had good luck with garlic from "Grow Italian" My best garlic as pictured here is from....Joseph! Photo doesn't even do it justice. And coming right along are bulbils. Bulbils are often overlooked, but are the cheapest way to buy garlic and as they have never had any ground contact, they are disease free. PM me if you want some. Attachments:
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Jun 26, 2013 20:47:57 GMT -5
My best garlic as pictured here is from....Joseph! I love it when my plants grow better in other people's gardens than in my own!!! |
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Post by littleminnie on Jun 26, 2013 21:23:12 GMT -5
A farmer on the market forum will sell to me for $10 a pound. Always seems high but then most places are toward $20 a pound. He doesn't have the varieties I prefer so I will probably get them from We Grow Garlic. I bought some bulbils from Sandhill this year. I will get some more. I absolutely am not going to plant any garlic grown locally. I already planted what I thought looked safe and have bare patches and who knows what else come 2 weeks from now. I have a few scapes to bring to market tomorrow and then I will rake off the straw and cut the water lines off and see what I get.
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Post by steev on Jun 26, 2013 23:17:36 GMT -5
In my local produce market, common whatever garlic is $2.98/lb; fancy garlic is $4.98/lb. Given your troubles, how bad could this be? Pm me, if you have any interest.
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