PH's 2017 Garlic Trials

[My Foot Smells]

your gonna need a backhoe to get all that into the barn on time. nice job. looking good.

[bjbebs]

Pure
Get your digging tools ready. Those stalks are pumping. Your soil is being protected from rain compaction by using heavy fabric. It may end up being loose enough to trowel the bulbs out. A long handled 10" trowel angled away from the bulb might work. I use a short 2 foot shovel for many things. These could be cut down in the shape of a trowel to give you more leverage. Or cut down a standard flat shovel small enough to fit your holes and dig from a standing position. Is your fabric tough enough to last another year? Have you considered shifting it a few inches and try to get another year out of your bed.

I follow up buckwheat with a thick grain rye sowing. If you cut down your buckwheat the rye seed could be sown on top of the stubble, no need to cover. It throws a deep root in loose soil. This can be knocked down at any stage for your green component. You could get 3 crops in before mid October.

[henry]

I use a tree planting shovel saves a lot of effort.
http://www.gear-up.com/products/view...t-shaft-shovel

[PureHarvest]

Good ideas.
I plan on using the fabric over many seasons. I was planning on using new beds to rotate the garlic to a new spot to avoid diseases etc. I believe the recommended rotation is 4-5 years.
I really think I will be able to pull it over the plants and off the bed.
And then dig the bulbs from the sides of the row.
I thought about following the buckwheat with sudex. If you mow it when it is waist high, the root system will grow 4-6 feet down. But I already have tillage radish on hand (Eco-till cultivar) and want to see what kind of depth of taproot I can achieve by October.

[henry]

How are you planning to clean the landscape cloth to prevent diseases in your new beds?

[PureHarvest]

I haven't put time into that thought yet. You bring up a good point henry.
The first question I'd have is about the pathogens that affect garlic and whether or not they can survive out of the soil.
There are those that do not survive out of the soil, Late blight on tomatoes comes to mind. If I am correct, it will not survive outside of some kind of host plant or debris.
If I make sure the fabric does not have clinging debris, it will come down to pathogen spores that can survive out of the soil. I could roll it out and scrub it with a long handled brush with greenshield or bleach I suppose.
Of course, some observation will go a long way too. I do not see any signs of soft/neck/stem/bulb rot or fusarium at this point. If this continues, I would feel safe re-using the fabric with maybe a bleach or greenshield app for piece of mind.

[henry]

Bleach should work for most problems.

[meganp]

Originally Posted by PureHarvest

I could roll it out and scrub it with a long handled brush with greenshield or bleach I suppose.

How about filling the reservoir of an electric steam mop with the bleach solution, that way you can be doubly sure of cleaning any nasties off the fabric?

[PureHarvest]

Interesting idea. I've thought of using a power washer with bleach in the siphon line too.

[bower]

I wonder, if you have a steam cleaner, is there any need for bleach at all?

I met a professional carpet cleaner last year, steam is what they use and according to the guff, the steam alone kills any kind of dust mites, bacteria or other nasties in a carpet.

Using bleach will reduce the lifetime of your cloth, for sure. Ultimately it makes plastic brittle, the longer you expose it to bleach, or the more times you treat with bleach, the sooner it will ruin the fabric. Some are more resistant than others, but the more sensitive plastics, you would find it hard to roll it up and get it to lay flat again after just one season and treatment.
Steam alone on the other hand, should keep it supple.

[PureHarvest]

In need to look into ways to make steam in an day and affordable way.
I was hoping to use it to sterilize and re-use by promix for my maters. Don't know why I didn't think of that for the fabric.
Good call bower

[svalli]

On Saturday I went to see my garlic bed in middle of the muddy field. It looked so pathetic and sad compared to pictures of PureHarvest's neat rows. Soil in our field is clay and climate much colder, but still that is not an excuse not to do things better way. PureHarvest has raised the bar and that has given me ideas how to improve my own planting process.
Spring here has been cooler than normal and there was still snow on the ground in shady spots. There are still freezing nights and snow in the forecast for this week, but it should warm up from the Mothers' Day. Despite the cold spring Spanish and French varieties had already some green growth, but the Siberian ones had just few spikes poking through the soil.
I am almost too ashamed to show my own black plastic covered garlic bed, but this could be shown as an example how different the results look, when there is not enough effort put into the soil preparation and planning in the planting phase. The leaves around the bed are the ones used for winter mulch.

Sari

[PureHarvest]

Svali, come on man. Your plants look great and so do your beds. There's a little dirt on the plastic, so what. My rows are crooked and I always tell my son, "the plants don't care".
I think you just need to get some warmer weather and see more stuff green up. Check back in 2 weeks.

[BigVanVader]

Lol all my rows are crooked, my excuse is that straight lines are not natural and curves are more pleasing to the eye. In reality I'm just really bad at making anything straight. The harder I try the bigger the curve so now I just eyeball everything

[Father'sDaughter]

Different environments, different techniques...as long as we all have a good harvest in the end, what does it matter?

I'm limited in growing space, so my garlic is over-crowded according to everything I've read on the subject. But that's how I grow it, and it works for me.