How does your Garden grow?

dlgoff

Your family rhody. We'll be here for you.

Monique

You were right! A week ago I noticed the outer segments of the first bud started separating and now today it is starting to look like flower I think it is a big groggy though, but hopefully it will open further within the next few days (and hopefully the other buds will follow the example).

A break-through, it's the first time in many years that the bud has opened. Thanks everyone for the advice, I think it helped. I spray the plant now several times a day and I've added some fertilizer when watering. I'm still planning to put them in a glass container. What should I do with the dying leaf, cut it off or let nature take it's time?

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turbo

Pulled all the garlic today. I'm taking a break in the AC with a beer. In many cases, the Russian garlic bulbs were bigger than the German (quite a reversal!). I have bunched and hung up the German garlic, then I'll have to tie up and hang the Russian stuff. Hope it gets cooler out there.

Ms Music

Speaking of garlic, I have been meaning to ask... My garlic turned out very mild. It is probably because I grew it in pots, and one was crowded, but I am not positive since I have never grown it before. The question though is for saving seed to plant. If ALL the bulbs are mild, by planting the bulb in fall, am I doomed to have mild garlic next year? Do I just eat all of the bulbs and order more? Or if grown properly this winter, will it be hot next year?

And for the reference, this is what I have: http://www.territorialseed.com/product/1299/26

Evo

That's wonderful Monique!!! I am afraid to try my hand at orchids. I also love gardenias, but every time I buy one, the blooms turn brown and fall off instead of opening, and I'm afraid it will be the same with orchids.

turbo

I don't know if mild begets mild. My hardneck garlics are remarkably consistent in taste and quality, though. The German garlic has very large cloves, and is a bit milder than the Russsian, which has lots of smaller cloves and a slightly more pungent odor/flavor. If you can get 'hold of Russian hardneck garlic, I recommend that you try it. It yields well, and you don't have to reserve as many bulbs for replanting, because there a lot more cloves/bulb than the German garlic (for instance). I wish had information for you, but I only have experience with these two varieties.

You can buy cloves for planting from Johnny's Selected Seeds starting in early fall, but it will be quite expensive, so you'll have to save some of your bulbs to re-plant the next fall. I plant just before the ground starts getting frozen and mulch heavily with oat straw. It seems to work. Garlic needs no more attention than that, apart from removing the scapes when they curl over, and the central swelling has emerged. The tips of the scapes are tough and stringy, but the bases of the scapes are wonderful grilled or in stir-fries.

Good luck.

Nice graphic for the fair this year. Many people have no clue what scapes are, so some education is in order. At any rate, by the time this Fall fair arrives, scape season is months behind us.
http://www.mofga.org/TheFair/FairNew...4/Default.aspx

Ms Music

All right, I will replant the bulbs and try it, unless anyone else has experienced this. It is very possible that the large bulbs will be hotter, but I won't know until I try them! I am saving them for last though, probably for planting. I put one bulb into 3 pots (3/3/and 4) and the pot with 4 bulbs never had scapes, were small, and browned up EARLY. If they all come out mild again next year, I will buy more (or bribe one off the friend that gave me this one in trade of ghost seeds). But this time I think I will try putting them in the ground. I thought pots would work better in case we had a very wet summer, I could put the pots under the eaves to dry up. But we didn't get quite as much rain as the past few summers, so rot hasn't been an issue this year.

I am thinking next year I may branch out into two varieties, there is one called Music that sounds good. Guess why? Oh, it happens to produce well in the Pacific Northwest. Also the long storage. http://www.territorialseed.com/product/1302

turbo

When I pull garlic, I hang it in a shaded place by the fronds. There are still nutrients in those green leaves which can be absorbed as the fronds dry out. If your winters are not cold, you can wait until late December or so to get those cloves in the ground, and cover with a good layer of oat straw. I try to keep the cloves separated by about 6" or so, so when the bulbs develop, they won't be crowded. That might be tough, depending on what kind of pots you have. Window-boxes might work out OK, if you don't have any garden-plot. Another wrinkle - the soil in my garden-spot was rocky with lots of clay, so I tilled in composted manure from a dairy farm. The next year, I tilled in coarse sand, too, and the yields went up (sizes of the bulbs). Still learning... Another tip: as you are separating the gloves in preparation for planting, keep an eye on any cloves that seem misshapen and reserve those for cooking. It is not uncommon to have double-cloves in one skin and if you plant them, you'll end up with one bulb for each half, and they crowd each other.

Good luck

ZapperZ

Congratulations!

As for the dying leaf, don't do anything to it until after it has done with its flowers. After that, you should cut off the dying/drying leafs. Make sure you use a sharp, clean scissors prevent transferring any diseases to the plant.

You may also cut back on fertilizing after the flowering is done, such as every other week or so.

Zz.

Ms Music

I take that back! I had a part last weekend, and they were all garlic lovers. I took out a bulb, complaining about how mild it was. Well, this small bulb wound up only having 4 cloves, and they were nice and fat. AND HOT AND SPICY. Everyone raved about how amazing my garlic was! The only problem is that after 3 days of eating delicious garlicky food, my stomach decided to burn a hole to China. It is actually TOO spicy for me. But OHHH SO delicious!

I will be expanding my garlic plot this winter.

Turbo, I now see what you mean. Nothing compares to home grown garlic. The mild ones were probably the ones that never threw scapes.

turbo

Home-grown is the only way. I didn't grow enough this year, and there are too many people wanting some for themselves. If I double up next year (intended) I will have to save more for planting this fall, and the people clamoring for more will have to buy their own.

turbo

People keep wanting me to "start" them growing garlic, but that takes a lot of cloves, and the lady who runs the local artisan butcher shop wants more and more. She can't keep it in stock, now that her customers want it. I'll have to double up (at least) this fall, and even at $5/#, she will take all we can deliver. She is selling single bulbs of garlic for a dollar, and it disappears out of her cooler.

Ms Music

Hey, my friend just gave me one bulb last year. 10 cloves. I will have to rely on the grocery store for winter use, but in a couple years I will have surplus for giving away to family and friends. Hoping to plant 3 bulbs this year. Have them try it out and expand every year. They can do it if they want to. And in the mean time, you can get more $$ per bulb for seed than food. :)

Actually, I also had planted 3 cloves from a grocery store bulb that had sprouted, and I just cracked into one of those. Pretty darned tasty there too, so they have options.

But it is more fun to be the garlic man and provide the store and have her brag about you.

turbo

Tracy is a monster in that regard. She wants all our extra garlic, and I'm thinking that we should at least double our output this year. She can sell it all, no problem.

http://www.onlinesentinel.com/news/m...010-10-02.html

A couple of years ago, I stopped in to the local elementary school where the "community garden" is, to give a friend some garlic. There was another woman there that I had had known for years, and I gave her "starter" garlic, too, and a very pretty young lady came running up to me saying "you're the garlic-man"! so she cleaned me out of my extra garlic. I hope those 3 ladies made wise use of those cloves. I can't afford to keep supplying them over and over.

turbo

The cabbage whites have been out in force for a couple of weeks now, so we have to be very diligent about soaking the broccoli in salt water for an hour or two or be resigned to getting some extra protein with our vegetables.

Evo

Finally, my tomatoes have put out little green tomatoes that have not yet been eaten by squirrels. Unfortunately, the squirrels seems to be able to levitate.

I have not had one single bell pepper set. After almost being killed by squirrels several times earlier in the summer, then the heat wave, it's been a bust. It's about to bloom again, we'll see. The eggplants put out blooms, but not one has set. I have never had a year where bell peppers and eggplant didn't set.

So far the only success is the jalapenos. They've been putting out all year.

Hopefully we get an Indian Summer and I get something.

Monique

I have recently acquired such weird plants... a few days ago I came back from a vacation and found one of my zebraplants had rolled up all its leaves into bizarre cigar rolls: apparently it was thirsty. After a thorough watering all the leaves unrolled again.

The last few days I noticed another plant, a Calla Lily, whose leaves were dripping with pure water. I inspected the ceiling, but it was dry. Now Google tells me the plant expels excess water through guttation.

Another plant, a prayer plant, folds up it's leaves every night to go to sleep (someone else's timelapse: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tq8-BDKws-I).

What's next?