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Posted: Oct/01/2007 5:16 PM PST
I am concerned about seeing garlic from China and wish to start growing my own. Is it OK to start this fall for harvest this coming spring? The soil here is clay. How should it be amended is any? |
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Posted: Oct/01/2007 6:09 PM PST
Hi. Yes, clay should be amended with peat moss and perlite. You can mix sand with it but I don't recommend it as sand doesn't come sterilized and it would promote more disease and root problems as seedlings in my opinion. Don't fertilize anything until you get more than 6 leaflets on the plant. By this time, use a slow release pellet fertilizer for consistency in nutrients required by the plant. You may also want to use a micronutrient plant food as a suppliment on a weekly basis and don't water too much. With clay soil, it promotes root rot, so water sparingly until the plant is well established. If you are wanting indoor plants, place some marbles on the bottom of the container before you add your soil mix (peat moss/perlite mix only) and fill 2/3 way to the top of container. Place seeds on top of soil and add a handful of dirt just enough to cover seeds and no more. water weekly. add fertilizers when plants have 6 or more leaflets. |
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Posted: Oct/01/2007 6:27 PM PST
Are you concerned about the carbon footprint of buying garlic from the other side of the world, or are you concerned about the fact that it came from China? Have you looked at food security, factory farming and industrial agriculture in the US? That should also be a concern. You can plant garlic in late autumn. Raised beds help in clay soils or the cloves will be small. I added blood & bone and compost. My soil has heavy clay so I backfilled the holes with some potting mix and water granules as well. I prepared the area with several applications of gypsum over a couple of months before I planted the garlic. Hope that helps! |
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Posted: Oct/25/2007 4:52 PM PST
Growing garlic is such fun and I have clay soil here too. WHen I made the bed I planted my garlic in, I just added more garden soil to it, mixed it all in and then planted the cloves in the fall. Actually, I got my garlic from our local organic veggie shop....the garlic bought in the supermarkets is treated with all sorts of chemicals and does not reproduce as good as organic garlic. Good luck! |
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Posted: Oct/30/2007 12:10 PM PST
Just go to the farm stand or store and buy it, I planted mine the beginning of oct for next summer, i just divide the bulbs make a small hole two inches deep and put clove in then cover it up, they will grow. |
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Posted: Oct/30/2007 7:11 PM PST
I planted about 40 cloves of garlic in the spring. Several of them sprouted and then seemed to die, but most didn't come up at all. After that I found out that garlic is better planted in the fall. Sure enough, most of the remaining ones have finally come up. I imagine that they will winter over and come up gangbusters in the spring. good fun! |
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Posted: Nov/01/2007 4:49 PM PST
They will come back up in the spring and be beautiful my kids thought I was growing corn. LOL... |
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Posted: Nov/02/2007 4:47 PM PST
When you plant the garlic, which end goes down? Pointed-end or stem end ? |
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Posted: Nov/02/2007 8:23 PM PST
Hi latebloomer, plant them with the flat part down, pointed end up. |
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Posted: Nov/04/2007 5:20 PM PST
Thanks, SoL..."point" to the heavens! Got it. |
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