Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Plant file thread on garlic.

As good garlic is too expensive and hard to find, information on growing garlic in AP would be useful. The chinese garlic sold cheaply in supermarkets is far inferioir to Australian/Italian garlic, but as mentioned can be hard to find and isn't cheap.

Anyone had much experience with garlic in AP?

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Regards,
Ranga
(aka Ryan)

My system: http://backyardaquaponics.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=4099

Got given a jar of pickled Garlic. No strong smell even the next day and was great eaten straight out of the jar or sliced on a biscuit. Going to have to start growing a lot of garlic.

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When I go, I want it to be peacefully like my Grandfather did, in his sleep -- not screaming, like his passengers.

http://www.backyardfarming.com.au/phpbbb/

you can get certified stock from Green Harvest. I have Elephant Garlic happily growing in AP.

http://www.greenharvest.com.au/

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Mmmmmm Big

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When I go, I want it to be peacefully like my Grandfather did, in his sleep -- not screaming, like his passengers.

http://www.backyardfarming.com.au/phpbbb/

Garlic is extremely easy to grow in soil and is very forgiving. It requires very little water and can also be planted very densely (a lot more so than books will say). If one has little space - it can be put throughout the garden between other plants (and will even deter aphids if that is a problem with your other plants).

IMHO - this is one of the plants where there is no reason to grow it in AP.

I got a reasonable crop from the dirt this year, considering I planted it way, way too late (because of being so busy). Plenty to keep us in garlic for the next 12 months and to have plenty for seeding the next crop.

Will give you some if I end up coming around to get some B bins Ryan. You've not had garlic till you've had your own fresh stuff hey. While much of it will keep good for the 12 months - in the first few weeks it is just unbelievable. I also like to eat it green (ie eat the bulbs while still growing - before they develop the outer skin).

Fair call VB - I have to remember to take the AP blinkers off now and then

BTW, any comments about favourite species would be good.

_________________
Regards,
Ranga
(aka Ryan)

My system: http://backyardaquaponics.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=4099

I've got beans growing between my tomatoes in the dirt. Might have to pick up a bag of garlic and do some sowing. Does it take long to grow. I had some in pots but some idiot kept forgetting to water them. And most of the other half's plants

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When I go, I want it to be peacefully like my Grandfather did, in his sleep -- not screaming, like his passengers.

http://www.backyardfarming.com.au/phpbbb/

Duff - unfortunately pots are not very forgiving, due to lack of moisture retention.

Garlic should be planted around March - from memory (at least that's in my climate) and will be ready for harvest before the rains hit in spring (say September). Of course I always seem to only get around to planting later than Mark, which means they are dying back when the rains are hitting, which can cause some big issues (if they get wet once they are dying back, the outer shell will go to crap.

Ryan - you mean favourite species of garlic? I'm not sure what the one I grow is called. It is the pink skinned one which is relatively small in size and full of flavour.

I got my first few cloves from my parents who go to church with somebody who was trying to do some small scale farming of it.

I've grown for about the last 4 seasons and in the first couple built up my seed stock by not eating too much of the garlic I grew. This time around I probably planted 400 plants and still had a half pillowcase of seedstock I could have used, but as I mentionned earlier I left it way too late to plant. Due to the late planting - the blubs I got this year are a bit small - but still excelent to eat and perfect for seedstock for next year. It's best not to use the biggest cloves as seedstock anyway because the bulbs will progressively get bigger each season and are said to lose flavour.

If you have a dirt garden.....

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My New Commercial System - viewtopic.php?f=13&t=6616
My Work - http://www.goldfieldsmc.com.au

OBO .... there is alway room for trails (garlick in AP).

I agree with VB on all he says about garlick planting. I have been growing garlick for the past 8 years(seasons).
Plant garlick seeds (taken from garlick gone to seed) or small garlick while the weather is still warm enough for the seeds/plants to germinate (March/April). If you use garlick seeds - you can leave them in the ground, because in the first year it will only grow to one bulb. In the second year it will divide.
My garlick here was underwatered (lack of rain/water restrictions) and it did not grow to full size. Will be harvesting during the next few days. If left in the ground the bulbs come up in March/April. They divide/splitup (which doubles/triples the harvest) just like Jonquils or Daffodils.

heka

Obo - if you have dirt, then there is potential for a dirt garden

I should clarify that when referring to seed stock in my posts, I was always referring to cloves. Far easier to grow garlic from cloves if you can get your hands on some, and once you have built up your numbers, you will always have heaps for the next season's planting.

Heka - do the seeds look like traditional seeds, or are they those things that look like miniature cloves that are sometimes in a bulbous bit 5 or so cm up the stalk? I guess I answered my own question - I never thought of them as seeds, but I guess it is obvious now

Heh, there always room in growbeds for garlic too, Ap all the way for me - except strawberries, they are in the hydro.

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My New Commercial System - viewtopic.php?f=13&t=6616
My Work - http://www.goldfieldsmc.com.au

I got my last lot of garlic from an old Italian guy who told me that they needed to be planted around ANZAC day... Grew ok in my AP system, but I tkink it's probably easier in the ground if you have it... Like spuds...

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www.backyardaquaponics.com
Bringing Food Production Home

To each his own OBO, but for me I think everything is about balance. There will always be a place for dirt gardens in my view. There are heaps of ways to maintain really sustainable dirt gardens as well (with minimal effort). Have a look around one of the permaculture sites sometime.

I personally think that slow growing crops are a waste of space in AP - which is really most beneficial when it comes to faster growing stuff. Garlic is in the ground (bed) for 6 months. In the same time you could have had a numberous crops of some fast growing leaf plants, harvested kilos of tomatos or made use of the space for various other things which are much better suited to AP. Sure - grow a few plants in your AP as an experiment, as a companion plant or if you only want a few bulbs a year, but for people who want to grow a bit - dirt is the only way to go. It will be interesting to see how they go in AP - because theoreticaly the conditions are all wrong (but I suspect they'd go fine). Keeping quality will be interesting.

As I mentioned earlier - inputs are very minimal for garlic in soil, so few of the problems exist that we solve with AP. I reckon I probably water my garlic 3 or 4 times in the 6 months they are in. Properly mulched, these few waterings plus a couple of rains during the period is enough.