Garlic Part 2

After promising Garlic Pt. 2 all week, I went and got myself all inspired and decided to lead by example, ie. plant my own and explain the steps I went through.

So if you're ready I suppose I should start from the beginning.

Site selection, same as real estate, Position, position, position.
Garlic prefers a sunny position.(That was easy)






I'm planting the Hardneck variety 'Monaro Purple' today, I'll plant the Softneck variety 'Italian White' in a week or two.

The three bulbs I received from Green Harvest gave me 28 cloves which, if I planted in one straight row would be about 5mts long and at 9 cloves per bulb that should yield me somewhere around 252 cloves, fingers crossed.






Soil Preparation, is very similar to carrots where by you use a part of the garden that has been manured and enriched for a previous crop. Too much fertility and you'll get all top and no bottom.
Also the growth will be too "soft" and will be more susceptible to disease.

I was going to use my mighty Cow manure on this bed as well as the compost but after consulting a few reference books I decided against it (I didn't want to run the risk of too "soft" growth) and just added some of my best compost at a bucket full per mtq sq.





I have a slightly acid soil here and all my reference books suggested Garlic like a slightly alkaline soil so on goes the dolomite again at a hand full per/mtr sq. I should have done this about two or three weeks ago but it's not a perfect world.











The Garlic bed all dug over and ready for planting.

















Planting time? Now.
Well for me anyhow.

Garlic likes a month or two of cold weather from below 0-10 degrees Celsius and is usually planted in autumn or early winter.

It seems everyone has an opinion on when's the best time to plant and in the long run it's probably best to use local knowledge or experiment from year to year to find your best planting time.




Planting, Plant cloves 10cm (4 in) deep, spacing them 18cms (7 in) apart in rows 35(14 in) to 40 cms (16 in)apart.
Edit, 1/4/09. Some where around here I should have mentioned to plant pointy end up.


There's more to this than I thought so I'm going for a Garlic Part 3 which will include after care, Pest and Diseases, and Harvesting.

Garlic Part 1

Garlic Part 3

What is Dolomite

What is Dolomite and clubroot?

Peggy from Organic Growing Pains left me a comment on my last post asking about Dolomite and it's relation to Club root in Brassicas.

So I thought I'd make a post about it and do the best I can to answer.

I might try point form and see how that works.

Dolomite

• Dolomite is not a fertilizer.
• Dolomite is a form of lime
  
• Dolomite is Calcium magnesium carbonate.
• It raises pH and supplies calcium and magnesium
  
• Dolomite is a soil unlocker and will even help improve clay soils.
• Use Dolomite only if you have acid and you need to sweeten it.
• It is slow acting and won't react with any old manures or organic matter.

Clubroot

• Clubroot affects Brassicas, including radish, seakale, swede and turnip.
• Clubroot is a fungal disease
  
• Clubroot is a soil borne slime mould, Plasmodiophora brassicae
• Clubroot is usually introduced to the garden in soil that adheres to boots, tools, and wheelbarrows, in garden compost or manure, and directly on infected plants.
• It is most common in soil that is acid and waterlogged.

Clubroot Symptoms

• Swollen roots and a distorted root system not to be confused with symptons of root knot nematode attack, which are smaller lumps more evenly distributed along the roots
• Plants affected grow very slowly and wilt quickly on hot days.
• They may eventually collapse altogether

Controlling Clubroot

• Improve drainage and add lime/dolomite at recommended rates.
  
• Raise your own plants or use resistant plant varieties.
  
• Maintain good weed control as some weeds can carry clubroot
• Practice good crop rotation.

Hope that helps Peggy.

This is by no means a definitive work, if anyone has anything to add then please leave a comment.