Garlic 2019

[PureHarvest]

Been busy but I wanted to get some pics on here.

Planted starting last fall around Halloween and finished up in the middle of November.

Have about 16,000 plants. Chesnock, Music, German extra hardy, Romanian Red, and small trials (maybe 100 plants each) of Turbans Tzan and Thai Fire.

2 plantings went into two 14'x100' caterpillar tunnels with the hope they would be earlier from being under cover. I put 4 beds (3 rows of plants in each bed) in each tunnel. I dropped the sides in late January to get things warming up. The plants are huge compared to the same varieties out in the field. Not sure if they will just big larger bulbs or if I will get earliness compared to the ones outside.
The little bit of green you see in the walkways is brown mustard that I planted in February. My hope is to not only get some cover to prevent weeds in the walkways, but get some wireworm repelling after I mow it down in a before bulbs start sizing up. The mustard I picked has high bio-fumigant compounds. We'll see.
Not pictured are two more plots that were planted last. They total 8 beds 100' long, so 2,400 row feet. They look great, though a tad shorter than the earlier planted stuff. There was less plant above ground over the winter, so less cold damage. Thinking about planting everything a week later this fall.

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Garlic in tunnel from 3-26:

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[pmcgrady]

Wow! Your garlic looks amazing!

[bower]

PH wow, they look splendid!!!!
Curiously, a greenhouse start for bulbils did not translate into earlier nor bigger rounds last year, although they were up months earlier. They seem to need daylength factors to start bulbing (?) which doesn't happen here until late July/August. But at least in theory, a bigger plant should produce a bigger bulb. I'll be really interested in seeing your results at the lower latitude and warmer climate / earlier normal harvest date.

[GoDawgs]

These are absolutely gorgeous, happy plants! Nice work!

[Salsacharley]

Oh boy! You are WAY out of my league! Amazing!

[PureHarvest]

Thanks everyone. You are all too kind.
Lots of trial and error, not just growing garlic, has finally led to something substantial.
All I ever wanted to do was produce something on a large enough scale to pay a mortgage for the year. I’m closer than ever.
Your words are very encouraging and it helps keep me going when the aches, pains, and hours feel like they are piling up without a win.
I’ll be back at some point as we get into May with an update.

[pmcgrady]

Originally Posted by PureHarvest

Thanks everyone. You are all too kind.
Lots of trial and error, not just growing garlic, has finally led to something substantial.
All I ever wanted to do was produce something on a large enough scale to pay a mortgage for the year. I’m closer than ever.
Your words are very encouraging and it helps keep me going when the aches, pains, and hours feel like they are piling up without a win.
I’ll be back at some point as we get into May with an update.

I was wondering how much help you have... 800 heads is about all can handle by myself. I have a lot of 2nd year bulbils this year, with those it's looking like 3 years before I get a decent sized bulb.

[pmcgrady]

BTW, I'm betting you have already succeeded on your goals!

[PureHarvest]

Planting is me and occasionally my 3 kids, all under 12.
Harvest last year was me, wife and my mom and dad. My kids chipped in a couple hours too. We use a farm all super a to lift the bulbs, so that is a major key.
Everything else is me.

[guruofgardens]

Wow, so many beautiful garlic. Do you sell them to stores or a farmer's market? I love harvesting garlic, but all I can handle is a couple hundred bulbs.

All the best for a wonderful harvest of garlic and everything else. You have done a beautiful job.

[PureHarvest]

I sell to produce stands.
Last year I sold to 2 locations. One has 2 stores and a CSA that sends out a few hundred boxes each week with 10 drop off locations.
This year I'm picking up a 3rd produce stand that moves 30 pounds a week.
I'm also seriously looking at selling online in 2020, considering the prices that are garnered in that space. A lot goes into that, and I have been doing my homework on what it will take.
A vendor I bought from two years ago sells 90% of her bulbs online and sells out every year by labor day. She said she paid 5k to get her site built with search optimization and it worked. Said she was sceptical doing it and begrudgingly forked the money over, but was glad she did. She says she was able to double her production two years in a row and still sold out by Labor Day.
I would be able to at least double the price I am selling at now if I ever move online.
I am also looking to get certified organic this spring, so I might even be able to more than double my revenue from the same production.

[PureHarvest]

Here is my brown mustard taking off between the rows on 4/20:

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[PureHarvest]

Here it is 10 days later on 4/30:

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[PureHarvest]

And here it is on May 9. I cut it all down with a plastic blade attachment on my weed eater. Ideally the debris should be worked into the soil to get the benefit of the bio--fumigation compounds into the soil to repel wire worms. I am not going to do this because I don't want to make a mess of the walkways and expose soil and let weeds germinate and fill the rows.

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[xellos99]

Not sure if you can get most French Varieties where you are or if they work well where you are but Thermidrome are tough and hardy.

I grew them all Winter in UK and freezing temps, frost, gale force wind and rain did nothing much. They just kept going and did not care