Weird garlic
The cool weather is only lasting two days, yesterday and today. But yesterday was fabulous. I came home from work and went out into the garden. I hadn't intended to pull my garlic then, but it needed to come out and it was only in the high 70Fs. So nice. I figured I'd get a few done and finish the next day, but nope. I just kept going and pulled it all out. I just wanted to stay outside in the nice weather.
Rotting
The German Extra Hardy all looked good, but the unknown artichoke variety that I've been growing for the last few years had some issues. I have rot in some of the bulbs. I wouldn't have noticed, but this year I decided to braid theses softnecks before the leaves dried. In the past I'd tried the other way, but they get too brittle. So I was peeling the outer layer off to get to clean skin and I could see the bulbs were yellowish underneath. That's not good. I hope I got all the rotting ones out as I wouldn't want them to spoil the others.
I've never had a bulb rot like this on me before and here I was with a small handful of bad bulbs. The soil I have is very rich and grows things well, but it has some really bad fungal diseases in it. I had issues with some of my onions rotting out. I've had half my spinach damp off in the spring. I had some of my carrot damp off. I'm not used to things rotting on me. So far it is the one bad thing about the soil here. I hope the garlic stores well. Last year's garlic went all the way to harvest time this year. I'm used to being able to store it all year long. I might not be able to if there is a lot of bad disease inside the bulbs. But time will tell.
At any rate, I wiped off the hardnecks and bundled them into five sections of six and hung them and the softneck braid up to dry in the bike shed. I'm now well protected from vampires. Or at last my bike is. I have a few cloves in my kitchen that broke off when I was harvesting them and a couple weird ones. I'll use those up first. The rest will dry and I'll weigh them up once they are ready for storage.
It was really nice to be able to work in the garden in the late afternoon. I don't remember the last time I could do that comfortably. I like the pleasant weather. I so want more of it.
Your bulbs are beautiful! I had some rot on the bottom of mine, but oddly, I even had some with just one large bulb in the middle. Odd.
ReplyDeleteThat's strange. I've never seen rot quite like that. I've been debating whether or not to harvest my garlic. The leaves still look pretty green and SSE advises to harvest when there are 5 green leaves remaining. I pulled up four the other day and the results were pretty inconsistent among my German Extra Hardy. I think I'll take my chances and wait a bit longer.
ReplyDeleteIt was a pleasure doing garden chores today. The weather the past couple of days has been so comfortable. Still warm, but little or no humidity. I harvested my garlic today as well. Most of the cloves were good sized. There were a few small ones that I will use up first.
ReplyDeleteMy alliums are all over the place. Some years good, others sort of fungusy. Your soil is beautiful, no doubt.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to harvest my spring planted garlic soon, even though it's small and won't store. I didn't plant a lot (because it was spring!), and what I've pulled so far has been perfect for immediate use. I need the bed to turn into a hoop covered bed for fall crops!
ReplyDeleteRibbit, I've never had a garlic do that to me. I had a few weirdly shaped ones. And the rot of course, but never not cloving up.
ReplyDeleteThomas, my leaves were all over the board. Some hadn't started to die off yet. Some had almost all died. Usually it ripens all at the same time, but not this time.
GrafixMuse, Sadly today got hot and sticky again. Ah well this is the first day of another heat weave.
Stefaneener, for most things my soil is great. Alliums in particular seem very affected by it.
Granny, my onion bed will be covered in a hoop. Well once the onions are pulled.
Daphne, I tried to braid my softneck garlic, but mine do not look neat like yours.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if solarizing your beds could kill off the fungus spores? Fortunately, I haven't had many issues with soil borne fungal diseases, I hope it stays that way!
ReplyDelete