GARLIC

    Garlic is one of the main annual crops I grow. I have grown it at our farm for a number of years now and it has proven to be a relatively reliable, low maintenance, high value crop. Much of our garlic is grown to be sold as seed garlic to others who would like to grow it. Because we sell garlic that may be grown by others, I try to be very meticulous when it comes to preventing diseases. Cultural practices, like crop rotation and keeping foreign garlic seed cloves out of my production areas, have served me well in preventing disease problems. 

    The way I usually grow garlic is in slightly elevated 'beds' with straw mulch for weed suppression. This can work fine as long as you don't have weeds that are germinating in (or growing through) your straw mulch. In my experience, hand weeding garlic can require a large amount of labor if weeds cannot be kept under control by other means. 

    Two of the cultivars I currently grow the largest amount of are 'Siberian' and 'Chesnok Red'. 'Siberian' can make large bulbs with only a few very plump cloves per bulb, while 'Chesnok Red' often makes smaller bulbs and smaller cloves but is known for its flavor and beautifully colored bulbs. Both of these cultivars are in the hardneck group of garlics, and are quite different than garlics in the softneck group. 

  For those interested in growing garlic in Missouri, this is my 'timeline' of activities:

August-September (year 1) - prepare an area for growing garlic that you will harvest in the summer of year 2.

Late October  (year 1) - make your raised beds (if you are going to grow the garlic in raised beds) and plant your seed garlic cloves. I have started planting my cloves somewhat shallow, making sure there is about 1 -2 inches of soil on top of the cloves. You can plant deeper if you like, some growers will plant them 2-4 inches deep. I plant them a little shallower because I use quite a bit of mulch. I plant all of my garlic cloves on an 8 inch by 8 inch grid, so there is 8 inches between plants and 8 inches between rows.

Mulch right after planting (year 1) - I generally cover my bulbs with 5-6" of loose straw mulch. This will settle during the winter and will often only be a few inches by spring. 

Late March - early April (year 2) - Pull any weeds germinating

May (year 2) - Watch for scapes. Timing varies. Cut the scapes off low when they are relatively young. They taste better and it can improve the size of your bulbs.

Periodically pull weeds in the beds. Can apply a little more loose straw mulch after pulling weeds in an area.

Late May-early July (year 2) - Watch your garlic like a hawk for the right time to harvest it. I generally will dig/pull all my garlic plants when most of the plants average 50% of the leaves have turned brown and are dying back. I have heard some people harvesting as early as when 25% of the leaves have turned brown. The key is not to wait so long that most of the leaves are dead and your bulb wrappers (underground) have been compromised. 

Post-harvest - I hang all the garlic plants immediately with leaves still attached in a covered well ventilated area. I do not allow the bulbs to be in an area where there is any direct sunlight or where they may get wet again as they dry. I usually allow the bulbs to dry, hanging, for approximately 4 weeks before the tops are cut off and the bulbs go into longer term storage. 

Two things I won't go into detail about, but are important to mention:

1) Irrigation - If you can irrigate your bulbs it can result in larger bulbs in some years. Methods to do this vary.

2) Fertilization - This can result in larger bulbs and there are many various recommendations out there for garlic. Generally, fertilizer or compost is added just before or right at planting, and some fertilization is often done in the spring. 

Expanding the Pawpaw Orchard

 I expanded our planting of pawpaw trees (Asimina triloba) again this past season. I have wild pawpaw stands that I harvest fruit from and manage at a very low level of intensity, and I have young trees planted in orchard settings that receive more management (and will definitely out produce their wild neighbors in the future). If you want to have a crop to sell quickly then you can cultivate the wild trees, but your crop may not be very uniform in production, size, shape, or quality. This is not unique to pawpaws, some other examples of crops in Missouri that are also grown in orchards AND harvested from the wild are pecans and elderberries. In fact, in a number of states harvests from wild pecan trees still make up a sizeable part of the industry. 

Left: Typical small wild pawpaw tree in the understory. This one is actually large enough to have some flowers on it and it may produce a few fruit. 

If this were a grafted pawpaw tree of this size of a 'good' cultivar, on a good site, in a well managed orchard, it could be capable of producing a few pounds of fruit at this size. However, being a small wild seedling tree in a heavily shaded area, it may make a few small fruits if I am lucky. 

Almost all of the pawpaw trees I plant are seedlings, which I will graft later in the field. There are a few reasons for this. A major one is cost, grafted pawpaw trees are expensive. Another is that good establishment in the field is never guaranteed for anything. If a tree does not establish well and dies I would much rather it be a relatively inexpensive seedling versus a much more expensive grafted tree. The main downside of planting seedlings and grafting later is you do lose a little time until you get to fruit production AND you will have increased labor cost of doing the field grafting. Field grafting a large number of trees yourself can take a lot of time and there is some periodic maintenance that may be involved that first season to ensure the grafts are successful. 

Below: New pawpaw trees just watered in after planting. This orchard was established over a site where garlic was grown last season. 

After the ground was prepared and the trees planted, I seeded a groundcover of white clover, creeping red fescue, and perennial ryegrass.

 In my newer pawpaw plantings I have moved to a more intensive spacing of 15+/- feet between rows and 12 feet (or less) between trees within the rows. 

  Above: Caging and placing shadecloth over newly planted trees is in progress 

I use cages around pawpaws for two reasons: 

1) prevent deer from rubbing on their trunks

2) I think some shade their first season seems to promote survival of the trees (especially if the trees are very small) and the cages give me something to easily attach some shade cloth on. 

Orchard Ground covers and Legumes part II

           I talked in some length in a previous post (see here) about the value and relative ease of adding legumes to an orchard groundcover. That post included some photos of some areas I had seeded legumes in previous years in areas that are (or were about to be) planted as orchards. I did extensive frost seeding of legume species in the winter of 2018 and 2019. The winter of 2019, and spring of 2020, were moist and cool in this area and conditions were excellent for germination of many of the legume species I planted, especially the various white clovers. I wanted to follow up that post with some pictures of how a really low-input, low-cost frost seeding can really pay off when environmental conditions are really favorable for the the planting.

Above: This picture was from earlier this spring and the white clover came on very early, it came on very dense, and with continued heavy rainfall it just kept on growing. The Ladino clover made especially tall, dense growth in favorable areas this year. 

Below (2 pictures): These are from mid-late May 2020. The first picture is of one of the typical small bare root pecan trees I planted the previous year. It has made fine growth with all this rain and many of them went from little 12" tall sticks into 3 foot tall trees this season. I generally like a fairly heavy straw mulch a couple of feet in diameter around the trees, then around that mulch I like to keep the legumes mowed consistently quite short.