http://tinyfarmblog.com/checking-on-the-garlic/ Daily photo-journal of organic market gardening: growing local food with two acres and some tools...! Wed, 07 Jan 2009 06:12:52 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.7 hourly 1 http://tinyfarmblog.com/checking-on-the-garlic/#comment-383 Mike (tfb) Thu, 22 Mar 2007 04:42:34 +0000 http://tinyfarmblog.com/2007/03/14/checking-on-the-garlic/#comment-383 The mulch may have helped out with heaving this year, when we didn't get lasting snow cover till mid-January, with mainly above-zero weather and a few freezing spells before that. First year for garlic, two years ago, I didn't mulch, and it worked out OK. Last year, with straw, the bulbs were much bigger, but so was the starting stock. Everything seems to work out in the 5% or so plus or minus: you do this, and it's 5% better, don't do that and it's 5% worse, and all the 5%'s add up... A lot of the time, I can't honestly say what exactly made this do better and that not so well. So I keep adjusting and observing and so far I've come out on the plus side... :) The mulch may have helped out with heaving this year, when we didn’t get lasting snow cover till mid-January, with mainly above-zero weather and a few freezing spells before that. First year for garlic, two years ago, I didn’t mulch, and it worked out OK. Last year, with straw, the bulbs were much bigger, but so was the starting stock. Everything seems to work out in the 5% or so plus or minus: you do this, and it’s 5% better, don’t do that and it’s 5% worse, and all the 5%’s add up… A lot of the time, I can’t honestly say what exactly made this do better and that not so well. So I keep adjusting and observing and so far I’ve come out on the plus side… :)

]]> http://tinyfarmblog.com/checking-on-the-garlic/#comment-237 Patrick Sat, 17 Mar 2007 19:05:24 +0000 http://tinyfarmblog.com/2007/03/14/checking-on-the-garlic/#comment-237 Besides heaving, evening out the soil temp helps the bulbs grow bigger. It doesn't make a big difference, maybe 10% or so. The flower bulb growers here in Holland cover their plants with peat moss in the winter, for the same reason. If you have a reliable winter snow cover, this works the same as straw. Besides heaving, evening out the soil temp helps the bulbs grow bigger. It doesn’t make a big difference, maybe 10% or so. The flower bulb growers here in Holland cover their plants with peat moss in the winter, for the same reason. If you have a reliable winter snow cover, this works the same as straw.

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