Notes from the ground troops
Jun. 3rd, 2007 18:03![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
torquillI pulled two blocks of garlic today: California Early and Chet's Italian Red. I've stopped counting how many leaves have died back, now, and just go by general color... Siciliano and Silverwhite are still deep blue-green, and seem to be sizing up nicely. I suspect they'll be another two weeks.
There's a reason California Early is one of the two major Gilroy varieties -- it does very well here. Despite the fact that garlic wants richer soils than mine (why can't it be a light feeder, like all the other alliums?) and I haven't figured out how to give it enough nitrogen to be truly happy, the heads this year were medium-sized with decent clove size. They can get much bigger than that, and I'm still working on it, but at least some of these are commercial size. They're not all bound for powder.
Chet's did a little more poorly. It always seems to. I know it's the one I started with, and I'd hate to just drop it, but I keep giving more real estate to CA Early and less to Chet's. I have a couple of planting-size heads, so I'll keep it going for a little while... maybe it's even more picky about soil than CA Early.
I field-washed them and set them out to cure under the trees. This should probably be my signal that I need to finish processing last year's garlic; the fact that it is still quite good even after a full year boggles me a bit, but it does need to be used before it finally gives up. Most of the cloves are too small and fiddly to be good for anything but powder, but we use a lot of that... and I just handed my mom three medium heads for adobo tonight, ones with cloves large enough to peel easily. Not all of them are write-offs.
The leeks are taking off with the warm weather. The multiplier onions are getting downright scary, enlarging so much they're popping their clusters halfway out of the ground... I don't know when they dry down, but I suspect it's mid-to-late summer, and I'll get a bumper crop, enough to share. The snapdragons have started to self-seed, popping up amongst the volunteer violas, beets, and parsley. Letting stuff go to seed means that I don't always have to worry about planting it when I'm busy. :)
The first corn is beginning to tassel, and I'm debating whether I feel up to digging another bed out there for a third round. The burgundy-tassel hasn't been planted yet, and it's prime time for it... I also need to spray the nooks and crannies of the corn stalks for earwigs, before they get a chance to really demolish the silks. That goes hand-in-hand with weeding, which takes more energy than I seem to have right now.
The tomatoes are doing okay, and I'll remove their sun protection once the initial hike in hot weather is past this next week.
That's about where things stand right now. I'm still a little worn out, but breathing easily today. Given how much stress I'm not under going into finals this quarter, I may actually be able to kickstart a late garden in the foreseeable future.
There's a reason California Early is one of the two major Gilroy varieties -- it does very well here. Despite the fact that garlic wants richer soils than mine (why can't it be a light feeder, like all the other alliums?) and I haven't figured out how to give it enough nitrogen to be truly happy, the heads this year were medium-sized with decent clove size. They can get much bigger than that, and I'm still working on it, but at least some of these are commercial size. They're not all bound for powder.
Chet's did a little more poorly. It always seems to. I know it's the one I started with, and I'd hate to just drop it, but I keep giving more real estate to CA Early and less to Chet's. I have a couple of planting-size heads, so I'll keep it going for a little while... maybe it's even more picky about soil than CA Early.
I field-washed them and set them out to cure under the trees. This should probably be my signal that I need to finish processing last year's garlic; the fact that it is still quite good even after a full year boggles me a bit, but it does need to be used before it finally gives up. Most of the cloves are too small and fiddly to be good for anything but powder, but we use a lot of that... and I just handed my mom three medium heads for adobo tonight, ones with cloves large enough to peel easily. Not all of them are write-offs.
The leeks are taking off with the warm weather. The multiplier onions are getting downright scary, enlarging so much they're popping their clusters halfway out of the ground... I don't know when they dry down, but I suspect it's mid-to-late summer, and I'll get a bumper crop, enough to share. The snapdragons have started to self-seed, popping up amongst the volunteer violas, beets, and parsley. Letting stuff go to seed means that I don't always have to worry about planting it when I'm busy. :)
The first corn is beginning to tassel, and I'm debating whether I feel up to digging another bed out there for a third round. The burgundy-tassel hasn't been planted yet, and it's prime time for it... I also need to spray the nooks and crannies of the corn stalks for earwigs, before they get a chance to really demolish the silks. That goes hand-in-hand with weeding, which takes more energy than I seem to have right now.
The tomatoes are doing okay, and I'll remove their sun protection once the initial hike in hot weather is past this next week.
That's about where things stand right now. I'm still a little worn out, but breathing easily today. Given how much stress I'm not under going into finals this quarter, I may actually be able to kickstart a late garden in the foreseeable future.
