Early morning harvest
Last year the garlic had nematode issues. So after eight years of using our own garlic for both eating and sowing next year’s crop, we bought new heads from two highly regarded, reputable growers in the northeast with high hopes and dreams of big heads of stinking rose.
Our dreams weren’t dashed, but they didn’t turn out as planned.
That’s about 180 garlic. First the German Hardy White, then Music, then more German Hardy White. Same row, spacing, irrigation, amendments and almost no weed issues.
We love garlic because it is so easy to grow, so easy to store and the home grown really does taste better. In addition, most of the garlic in the market comes from China, so here’s another little opportunity to reduce our carbon footprint.
All 180 garlic are planted in the same row, with the same soil amendments, the same irrigation, the same spacing and almost no weed issues thanks to the leaf mulch. This year we planted the row with about 40 German Hardy, then 90 Music, then about two weeks later another 50 German Hardy.
German Hardy White from the Maine Potato Lady. Most heads are about this size.
The German Extra Hardy on either side of the Music came out well. As usual, nicely sized heads, some larger than others but almost all of a respectable size. The vendor of the quality German Hardy White garlic was the Maine Potato Lady.
No, that’s not okay.
The Music, however, did not play for us this year. Sometimes we get small heads of garlic but the entire crop of Music was minuscule. I mean, the size of a quarter miniscule. The head. The entire head is the size of a quarter. I’m not going to share the name of that vendor, yet.
I am not amused. I’m also not sure what happened but I’ve a good idea.
As I said, all three batches (German Hardy, Music, more German Hardy) were in the same row with the same amendments, spacing, irrigation and the same lack of weed issues. There were no animals burrowing around in the patch of Music more than the rest of the row.
Most of the Music are about the size of a quarter.
Shit happens. In this case, I think poor quality seed garlic is the shit that happened. I’ll update when I hear back from the vendor.
I hope your garlic turned out better than our Music did!