Keene Organics

Certified Organic Family Farm

GARLIC & MUSHROOMS

PASTURED CHICKEN AND EGGS

908 Sun Prairie Road
Marshall, WI 53559
United States
ph: (608)215-7599
keene@keeneorganics.com

2010 Garlic Growing Season

2010 Garlic Growing Season Tips
As the season goes on, we will be updating this page so you can get hits and tips on how our garlic is doing and what you may need to be doing to yours. I will try to let you know what you may need to be doind with your garlic crop in the next few weeks. I will also show pictures of how our garlic is growing, so you can compare it to your crop. I will also post questions that I'm getting just in case they help you in your garlic crop situation. Picture to the right is garlic about March 24, 2010 right after the snow melted.
June 15, 2010
Make sure you are picking your garlic scapes off! Do this to make sure your garlic puts its energy into bigger bulbs. We have done experiments with keeping them on and there is a difference in size. The scapes grow on the hardneck garlic and emerges from the center of the garlic leaves. Just snap off the garlic scapes right as it emerges out of the leaves. Keep these and eat them. Better yet, make a year supply of pesto and freeze it. See our recipes or google garlic scape recipes.

Once the garlic starts to bulb, you want to stop foliar feeding, because the plant does not need any more nitrogen.

We are getting a lot of rain every couple days. More than usual, but we are not worried yet. Hopefully, the rain will slow down before we harvest the 2nd week of July. We have never had to irrigate our garlic, because we always get about an 1"+ of rain a week, but we do not want the garlic to get too much rain before harvest. If it is too wet, the bulbs can rot. Not something we can control unless you are irrigating. If you are, stop 1-2 weeks before harvest.

Some of our garlic varieties are over 3 feet tall and some are 18". All look good, healthy and thriving. We are only weeding what we have to or weeds that will set seed or are disrupting the garlic. Since we did a good job weeding this spring, we don't have a lot of weeds.

May 10, 2010
Wow! It's been a month since our last update! Since then, the garlic has been doing well. We are weeding the small weeds right around the garlic that the tiller is not getting. We are also picking garlic that we set aside for green garlic. Green or Spring garlic looks like a scallion or green onion. We slice it like a green onion and put it in everything we can: spaghetti sauce, egg salad, beef roast, grilled on the grill, potato salad, our seasoned butter or anywhere you may want a mild garlic flavor.
may want a mild garlic flavor.

Garlic scapes will be here soon, so prepare to start picking them. Get your pesto recipes together, so you can make a year supply of pesto for your freezer. You may also blanch the scapes and use for later.Garlic scapes will be here soon, so prepare to start picking them. Get your pesto recipes together, so you can make a year supply of pesto for your freezer. You may also blanch the scapes and use for later.

April 11, 2010
All of our garlic is up an growing and about 5-11" tall depending on the variety.  Our entire field was lightly tilled last week, so the field looks great. We had about a 1/2 inch of snow, and the garlic wanted to wilt a little in the morning, but as soon as the warm weather came it was strong, tall, and nicely green. I dug up a clove to see how the garlic was progressing and it has not shed it's clove yet, but the roots were nicely developed and the leaves are strong, hardy and green. I just can wait to make a dish with green garlic. It should be soon!

April 3, 2010
We are having some warm, but dry weather. It hit 69 degrees for 3 days here then we had some wonderfully needed rain. After the rain, I checked the garlic and it popped up about 2 inches.  Mother Nature does wonderful things. I was almost going to irrigate the garlic if we didn't have the rain. Last year I never irrigated the garlic. We had a nice steady rainfall all spring up until harvest when it started to dry out a little which is exactly how we would want it to be. This year may be different, so we will wait and see, but we will be ready to irrigate if needed.  We had time this weekend, so we did a very light till using our rototiller to get the small weeds on the top turned over. The less the soil is disrupted the better. There is an entire ecosystem living in our soil and tilling disrupts and can destroy that very delicate system. We need that ecosystem in balance so our soil can create wonderful crops. A lot of worms are a good sign of healthy soil. We should be foliar feeding by now, but will start this week.
Check out our pictures of before and after tilling. Compare the growth rate to 3/24/10 picture.
Garlic field before and after tilling. The weeds are small above, but it's best to weed
when they are small like this, because they can get large quickly. The light till still
leaves some winter kill oats on the field for a little mulch and organic matter.
See below. Our Georgian Crystal is growing wonderfully. This is before tilling.

Spring is here!!!!!!!!!!!!!

March 24, 2010

The first beautiful sign of spring right after the snow melts is the emergence of garlic leaves. In the last 2 weeks the 3 feet of snow covering our garlic has melted. I now see wonderful green rows of garlic leaves which are about 2-5 inches tall all down a straight row.

If you put mulch over your garlic, make sure that the leaves are poking through. The garlic should start emerging. If your garlic is smothered by the mulch, push it to the side and around the leaves so the leaves can continue to grow through the mulch. Don’t remove this valuable mulch from the field! It will provide you with organic weed control and help retain moisture. Just don’t smother your crop!

We will be starting to Foliar Feed out garlic in the next week or two. We use OMRI Listed Dramm One Fish Emulsion which is an accepted organic fertilizer by our organic certifier. Always check with your Organic Certifier to make sure all inputs are accepted. Otherwise, choose OMRI listed products which is a easy way to know that these products have been reviewed by organic agencies and approved for Certified Organic use. NOT all fertilizer products that say they are “organic” really are. They don’t have to go through a certifying agency to guarantee they are organic. Confused…yes…we have been too! Compost Teas are also a good foliar feed.

Get started early on the weeding! Our garlic is currently taller than the weeds, but that won’t last for long. Before we foliar feed, we will lightly till the garlic rows to remove the weeds.

If you don't have the Growing Great Garlic book by Ron L. Engeland, Purchase IT! It is still a great reference guide and very informative.

Recent question and answer:

Question:

I purchased garlic from you last fall, planted it and mulched it in November, and now I need your advice. Our Maine winter was very unusual this year - December, January and the first part of February were our usual type of winter with much snow and cold temperatures. From mid-February until yesterday, the weather was warm and dry. There is no snow in the garden. I noticed a few days ago that with the unusually warm temperatures some of the garlic has poked through the straw and is up 4 or 5 inches. My concern is that we are now having wind-driven rain and Thursday night and through the weekend, the nighttime temperatures are predicted to be 10 - 15 degrees. What should I do? Cover the plants with row covers and try to prevent the plants from bendingn under the covers, or will garlic withstand those cold temperatures?. I have not removed any straw.

I would very much appreciate your expert advice.

Answer:

Garlic is really a hardy plant. What I most worry about is the garlic getting flooded and freezing, and you really can't do anything to prevent that.

What I would recommend is:

1. You said you did not remove the straw mulch. Good. That will be an insulator during these heavy rains. I would take the straw and push it close around the garlic for some protection from the rain and temp.. Make sure that the garlic is not being smothered by heavy hay/mulch.

2. After the rain, make sure the garlic is not being smothered by the mulch. Keep the mulch around the garlic, but not smothering it. The mulch will reduce weeds and keep the moisture. Make sure the garlic can continue to poke through the mulch. As it pokes through the mulch it will continue to grow.

3. With the straw pushed around the garlic for protection, the garlic should be okay. If you really want to take the next step, and put row covers you could. I have not ever done it and we have been through similar spring weather. Garlic can withstand quite a bit. If it floods and freezes, that is where you may see some loses.

May I post your question and my answer on my website to help other growers with similar questions? I would not include your name.

If you would like me to call you to discuss more, please provide your number and I can give you a call.

Thanks,

Keene Organics

Question:

Is your garlic just for seed or is it eating (consumption) garlic?

Answer:

Our garlic is for BOTH!

Enjoy eating our wonderful tasting garlic or use it for planting seed to grow your own garlic. We sell our garlic at local farmer's markets and have customers continuing to come back for some of the best tasting garlic they have ever had. Many people have not had the luxury of homegrown garlic, since most of the garlic in the grocery stores is a bland variety and many times shipped in from other countries (mainly China). To extend shelf life for stores, they spray the garlic with antisprounting spray among other things. That is why grocery store garlic can't be grown sucessfully. We have a variety of garlic that will store naturally from 6-12 months, so we have garlic all year round (except that we sell out). When the new crop comes in, we start eating on the new garlic crop and the prior year garlic is gone by then.

Many customers use our garlic for seed garlic, so they can grow their own garlic too. Since we have a wide variety of garlic, many gardeners want to grow and try our different varieties. We want our customers to have a sucessful garlic crop, so we try to provide all our growing experience on line to share with others.

We treat our eating and seed garlic the same way. With the highest quality standards!

We sustainably manage our soil to ensure that we have the proper balance of nutrients and minerials to produce the healthiest vegetables, garlic, berries, and herbs.

908 Sun Prairie Road
Marshall, WI 53559
United States
ph: (608)215-7599
keene@keeneorganics.com