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Colorado Black Garlic

Lee, a reader of this blog, recently contacted me concerning Colorado Black garlic.  He is looking for planting stock, and is unable to locate any in the US.  The Garlic Store usually carries it, but doesn’t have any this year.

I would normally be happy to send him some, but since I’m in Europe I can’t import it into the US.  I also suspect my own planting stock is infected with a virus.

Is there anyone reading this who lives in the US and could send some to Lee?  If so, please send me an email or leave a comment here making sure to put your correct email address in the box provided, and I’ll put you in direct contact with Lee.

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Rusty Garlic and Dead Ground

It’s always hard to take pictures of my garlic plants, because I have so many of them growing close together, but in the middle of this picture (the plants with their base at the bottom center) are some of my rustiest plants.  This is Kransnodar White garlic.  Kransnodar is a city in Siberia, and I think it was famous for it’s garlic in Soviet days.  In a few days these plants will be dead for sure, but I may still be able to harvest something from them.

I remember from last year this variety got rust badly too, and the bulbs I harvested were on the small side.

Rusty Garlic

Another variety getting bad rust is Tuscan, an Italian variety:

Rusty Garlic

These pictures don’t have enough resolution to see it clearly, but it looks like these plants have pox or something.  They are covered in lots of small brown spots.

I would say in general the rust seems worse than last year, but it’s still too early to say how bad it really is.  I’m so close to harvest, that every week the plants stay alive is very important.  These two pictures represent the worst, and most of my garlic really seems to be doing okay for the moment.  The severity of the rust seems to depend on the location in the garden, as well as the variety.  I’m learning the quality of soil in my garden varies greatly from spot to spot, and it’s clear that has an impact on the severity of the rust.  Exactly what the factors are behind this is less than clear however.

It’s been my intention to reduce the number of varieties I have, so any that get particularly bad rust which are not otherwise interesting, will probably get discarded.

Now I’m waiting for the potato blight to arrive.  It’s getting to be about time for that too!

Dry and Windy Weather

It’s been very dry recently.  Not particularly hot, but the wind is really drying out the ground.  Established plants in my garden don’t need a lot of watering, because while the water table is going down a bit in this weather, it’s not too far down and anything with deep roots can reach it.  I’ve recently planted some beans and a few other seeds, and it’s been a challenge to keep them wet enough to germinate, because the ground is so sandy every time I add water it just drains through.  Parts of my garden are even rich with seashells!

So far the only victim of the wind were a few of my Jerusalem artichoke plants, but I guess these will grow back.

This dry weather has really given me a different perspective on the soil of my garden.  Beside noticing how sandy it is, I’ve been noticing anything that’s not growing next to beans has not been doing very well, which seems to go along with my soil test of a few months ago that showed a general lack of nitrogen.  It’s also just increasingly clear the ground is very lacking in organic material.  I have really added a lot of compost in recent months brought from my previous garden, but it has not really had a lot of time to become incorporated and more would probably help.

I’ve noticed the ground in my garden is mostly ‘dead’.  There are very few worms or insects living in it, with the exception of a lot of ants.

If you are a commercial farmer (at least in this part of the world), the ideal situation is ‘dead’ ground.  Organic material is usually not desirable, and is best avoided when possible.  Pure clay, silt or sand, or some mixture of these three is the best.  The reason for this is farmers have a system of growing crops with chemicals that works very well for them, and if the ground is ‘dead’ there are simply fewer variables for them to deal with.  The nutrient balance of the ground (or perhaps the complete lack of nutrients) is generally known in advance so a preset amount of fertilizer can be added.  Most chemical fertilizers don’t remain in the ground for more than a growing season, because they are water soluble, so every year you are starting fresh.   All of the pests and diseases are mostly known quantities, and there are chemicals available to deal with these.

It’s part of the culture here that individual thinking is not encouraged, and there is often a social price to be paid if you think and act differently than others.  Perhaps in part for this reason, most people here seem to take the same approach with gardening that farmers take, and prefer ‘dead’ ground with chemicals added.  It’s certainly an issue that divides people mostly according to nationality in my garden complex, with compost being made and used mostly by non-Dutch born gardeners, and the point of some contention.  Since the previous gardener was Dutch-born, it’s logical to think the approach he took was to promote dead ground, but I don’t know for sure.

It’ll be interesting to see how my garden changes as I add more organic material, and try to promote more life processes in the soil.  I’m curious how long it will take before I notice real changes.

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Real Seeds from Garlic Plants

I’ve posted a few times about the production of garlic seeds but haven’t gone into a lot of depth. Honestly, I don’t know very much, but I hope to learn more this year.

The basic idea is this. Garlic normally reproduces asexually, either through root divisions in the form of cloves that can be replanted to grow more bulbs, or bulbils that form on the tops of some garlic varieties. Garlic does not normally produce true flowers that can cross pollinate with neighboring plants. Perhaps at one time in it’s evolution it did reproduce sexually, and it’s been observed that sometimes when you remove the bulbils as they are developing it can cause the plant to try to reproduce sexually. Some people have had success making garlic seed in this way.

This is reported to be a very difficult and tedious process.

Some people reading this know that shallot seeds have become available in the last few years, something that likely came about from a similar process.

I’ve been chatting informally via email with someone named Avram who lives in Oregon and has been doing this for some years now.   He has sent me a lot of interesting information.

Recently Avram gave me permission to go through our private emails, and cut and paste some of the more relevant parts into an Internet post. That’s the purpose of this post.

Some things like Avram’s personal notes or contacts, or some research papers he forwarded me I’m not going to publish on the Internet. I’m also going to replace some people’s names with initials to protect their privacy. If you want some of these things, or you want to get in touch with Avram, please send me an email and let me know. If you send me an email and tell me you want to get in touch with Avram, I’ll forward your email to him and he will get in touch with you if he wants.

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Text in bold are excerpts of email I sent to Avram.

Block quoted text are excerpts of email Avram sent to me.

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Hi Patrick. JG forwarded your e-mail to me. You had asked him primarily about rust in garlic. On that i know little as i haven’t experienced it. Here’s a couple of sites that deal with disease:

http://plant-disease.ippc.orst.edu/plant_searchResults.cfm?search_str=garlic&host_alpha=Select&host_text=garlic&submit=++Go%21++

http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/selectnewpest.onion-and-garlic.html

I have grown garlic for about 13 years and have grown around 150 supposed cultivars. Currently i have 80 accessions. I just got some land i can actually farm on so instead of growing around 400 lbs. i’ll hopefully grow over 2000.

This is worth reading: http://www.ars.usda.gov/Research/docs.htm?docid=5232

It is very helpful to read the Volk study: http://www.garlicseedfoundation.info/allium_sativum_DNA.htm If you can get through the academic language, this study is important to understanding garlic.

In the classification system popular in the States, there are 10 categories. Gatersleben uses a different system. The Volk study looks at genetics. I find that after 3-5 years of adaptation that variation in some categories is next to nil. The Volk found that there was a lot of duplication both within the USDA collection and in two major garlic seed (clone) companies: Filaree and The Garlic Store. The SSE collection is filled with duplicates!

In terms of true seed, most garlic is male infertile. Fertility is often indicated by the presence of purple anthers, though there are exceptions. The USDA has done seed production viability studies; however i’ve had very good results on varieties they have not and vice versa. Seed production tends not to be consistent on varieties one year
to the next. Let me know if you’re interested in doing it. I can tell you that is is very time consuming, that breeding new varieties will take years and that professionals have already produced millions of seeds and grown out out numerous generations of progeny. My first year i got a few seeds, none germinated. The next, i plucked bulbils from over 80 inflorescences, got 37 seeds and only one germinated. This last
year i plucked from 132, got 371 seeds and i have started them yet. My one seedling is very strange. It’s in a pot and still growing….

In my SSE listing i had asked if anyone was working on this in hopes of dialog with anyone else but have had no response. Other than the USDA and the Israelis, i don’t know of anyone still working on this. I think agribusiness growers gave up as they found it not cost effective for seed to bulb to seed crop production, especially with cheap imports from China.

A short time ago, you left a comment here on my blog, but didn’t leave
an email address so I didn’t know how to get in touch with you:

http://bifurcatedcarrots.eu/?p=219#comments

Hi Patrick. Funny i left that comment. I’ve never posted a comment before on the computer and didn’t think it actually worked. In winter i look on the net to find a new research into seed production and one of my searches led me to your site.

The Volk study found that all but one of the Porcelain phenotypes tested were duplicates. My observation concur with this with one exception: Mexican Red, a nebulous name for a garlic which looks and tastes like every other Porcelain except that it has purple anthers and produces seed. I did get viruses on most of my Porcelain which made it that much easier to discontinue most of them. I also found that most of the Artichokes were barely distinguishable after 3-5 years. Turbans as well. I have trialled Turbans collected by friends, family, a neighbor’s friend’s missionary daughter, etc. from places like Corella, Euzkadi (Basque territory), Eastern Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan,Thailand, China, Sonoran desert region (USA), etc. Sometimes i think there’s better color in one to the next or that average maturity dates are a little off but if the sampling is large enough even these “differences” are unconvincing. Leaf architecture, width, length, scape length, maturity dates, anthers, etc–these are all basically the same, /in my climate, soil, and latitude/ here in SW Oregon. When i got the Turban that friends brought back from Bangkok it was a white bulb with white cloves and an odd cloves configuration. After 2 seasons it was a typical Turban. My soil and water have a high iron content which affects coloration. The category i’ve seen the most diversity in is Asiatics. I have yet to see two identical cultivars. Most interesting to me are the one that do not fit into any of the categories. I have several in my collection including a few collected in the wild. If you have the ’04 SSE Harvest Edition there is an article by Rich Hannon on a seed collection mission in Turkmenistan. I am growing the two garlic he found (2nd year). In the first season they changed from where they had been adapted to (Pullman, WA, Southeastern WA state) but neither was particularly viable for seed production. We shall see.

Here are a couple more links.

this is Gatersleben and it’s interesting to see how they classify.

http://pgrc-35.ipk-gatersleben.de/apps/gcc/core_collection.htm#_Taxonomic_Af

the garlic and health project was based in the NL. this is the results page, though there is much more on the site. Interestingly i too found that application of sulfur fertilizer increased pungency in garlic and it’s a fun thing to experiment with.

http://www.plant.wur.nl/projects/garlicandhealth/Results.htm

I am attaching a research paper. It is current and it gives you an idea of how far the true seed thing has been taken, at least by Israelis who have some very well funded research. It’s a little discouraging at times to do so much work on something that others have already taken a long long way but i am a garlic geek, a grower not a scientist and i want to breed my own varieties.

Hi Patrick. I recall you looking in to rust in garlic. I was looking in some old Garlic Seed Foundation zine and found a note that you probably already know but i thought i’d share with you.

“Rust is caused by /Puccinia porri./ It varies on different hosts and different strains of the fungus have different levels of virulence to various allium species. The fungus overwinters as spores on field trash and hedge rows and is blown long distances in the wind. The disease occurs most frequently under conditions of high humidity and low rainfall (immersion in water reduces spore viability). Spores need at least 4 hours at 97% RH to germinate and infect. Rust is enhanced by plant stress from too wet, too dry and excessive nitrogen. Control is limited”… Basically clean seed, good crop rotation, separate field and control of allium weeds.

Hi Avram,

I have another question for you.

At what stage do you usually pluck the bulbils? Do you do it while the scape is still fairly immature, or do you wait until the bulbils have begun to develop and are exposed?

About what date do you usually start this?

Hi Patrick. I’ve experimentented with different things. I’ve cut the scapes before elongation, put them in water and eventually they elongate, swell and open. I’ve left them to natuarlly elongate, and open. I’ve foliar fed them to keep vegetative growth process to continue as long as possible. My best result was to do this: foliar feed weekly to try to keep the plant alive and pluck the bulbils when the spathes began to open. When the stems really started dying i cut them and put them in water. I’ve hand pollinated with small paint brushes but the bees seem attacted to them and i’ve rubbed cut inflorescences against others during anthesis. As far as plucking goes, i’ve tried a number of different tweezers. Some varieties are easy, others are very difficult. There seem to be layers that emerge at at different times. It’s challenging to avoid breaking the pedicals, the delicate flowers stalks while plucking.

It’s been a very cool wet Spring here. Usually, or at least since i’ve been keeping records, i’ve harvested all the Turbans and started on some of the Asiatics. This year i’ve harvested only two experimental varieties from SE Asia. Great year for brassicas, not so good for solanums, except spuds. I’m delving into the world of tractors and implements to work up the pasture and get it cover cropped. While last year i plucked bulbils from 131 plants, i don’t see myself having the time to do as much this year, especially becuase none of the 370 or so seeds i collected germinated which is very discouraging. The one plant i grew from seed is doing great, potted up and in its second year.

How’s your season thus far? How’s the garlic look? When is your harvest period?

I’m attaching my records from last year. The nebulously named “Mexican Red” is the only Porcelain appearing bulb to have purple anthers that i’ve experimented with and i’d hoped it’d be good for crosses.

I don’t recall what all links i gave you but here’s the updated ATTRA publication (they are the BEST resource for organic/sustainable agriculture i’ve found.

http://attra.ncat.org/calendar/new_pubs.php/2008/04/11/garlic_organic_production

This is another interesting one: http://www.bignewsforgarlic.com/

Hours of reading here: I have a glossary of botanical nomenclature handy when pouring though any of the academic research. http://igb.agri.gov.il/allium_page.pl#Allium_Collecting_Missions_and_Research_Activity

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Garlic June 2008

Most of my hardneck varieties have formed scapes, in various stages of curling and uncurling.

Garlic Scape

A couple of the scapes have also started opening and forming bulbils.  In the past I’ve removed most of my scapes to eat and in order to promote bulb growth.  This year I’m going to let most of them form.  Not only am I tired of eating garlic scapes, but I’ve started to learn that bulbils are really useful.  It’s easier to send someone bulbils in the mail, and it’s safer to give bulbils to other gardeners when sharing garlic because you are less likely to spread disease that way.

I am also going to try prodding the garlic plants to make some seeds.  I understand this can be done by plucking out the bulbils with tweezers, which will in turn cause the scape to bloom and try to produce seeds as sort of a survival mechanism.  I am not expecting success the first year doing this, and I understand it’s a lot of work and takes a lot of patience I probably don’t have.

Garlic Scape

Garlic Rust has started to appear on the leaves, which is not very good news but was expected.  It appeared on my garlic about the same time last year.  Harvest is in about 7 weeks, so it’s just a matter of waiting and hoping it doesn’t get too bad.

Garlic Rust

This plant has it a little worse.

Garlic Rust

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Garden May 2008

In an earlier post I showed a drawing of my community garden, together with some ideas of what I would grow and where. Here’s a little bit of an update.

The apple trees are in bloom:

Apple Tree Blossom

Apple Tree Blossom

The pears have already begun setting fruit, and while late frosts killed most of the plum blossoms, a few have managed to set fruit as well.

I just transplanted corn plants started indoors into bed #4:

Corn Plant

Here is a yacón plant in bed #3, next to weed suppressing plastic:

Yacón

I started the Ulluco indoors, and recently transplanted it to bed #3. It’s an amazingly fragile plant, and it’s still suffering a bit from the shock of being transplanted. To anyone else considering starting it indoors, be sure to start with a large pot as it gets root bound very quickly.

Ulluco

I planted a few Ulluco tubers early, with my potatoes, and that seems to have been a mistake. In spite of a layer of straw to protect against some late frosts, they don’t seem to have survived. Together with these transplants, I have also planted my last few tubers, so we’ll see how they do.

My potatoes are starting to poke through the ground:

Potato

The garlic in beds #1 and #2 is getting huge! I’ve already started harvesting spring garlic, yum!


I’ve also been harvesting rhubarb, left behind be the previous gardener. It’s amazing how good home grown rhubarb tastes compared with what you buy in the store. I wonder what they do to store bought rhubarb that makes it taste so bad!

Still to be planted out are some cucumbers and squash to go with the corn in bed #4 and some white Alpine Strawberries to go in the back of bed #3.

The tomatoes are doing well in the greenhouse, but there are too many weeds to take a picture right now. I have taken out a part of the patio and the red currant bed, and have been building some raised beds in their place. I’ll take some pictures of this when it’s a little more finished. In these beds, I’ve already planted celeriac (celery root), Crosne (I’ll post more about this later), some peppers and the asparagus plants. I plant to put swiss chard, beets and beans in other beds in this spot.

I’ve planted some tomatillos next to the garlic in bed #1.

My Belgian friend Lieven also gave me a number of soft fruit plants, and these have gone in on the back side of bed #1 as well as the empty space between the red currant and cold frame in the garden sketch.

I recently planted tubers or seeds of ground nuts, Oca, Mashua and Salsify in bed #3. The Jerusalem Artichoke I planted in the fall in the back of bed #3 has also started coming up.

I planted some peas in the back of bed #4, but they are not doing well. I’m still trying to understand what went wrong there, and perhaps I’ll post some more about that later.

I still have a number of seeds to plant, including those given to me by others I need to say more about. I also have more to say about where a number of the plants I’ve already mentioned came from. I’ll do this in other posts.

The weeds are driving me crazy! In the last few years I was growing on heavy clay, and the size of the garden meant I mostly gave up on the weeds where they couldn’t be mulched. This year I am trying to keep them much more under control, but it’s a lot of work.

The previous gardener let the weeds get out of hand, and many have become very established and there are a lot of seeds in the ground. He also build an extensive network of paths with paving stones, and this has generated a huge problem with the weeds and used a lot of space better made available for plants. I have been slowly taking up these stones, and using them to build the raised beds. I have to do this a little at a time because they are so heavy, and as a result the garden is in a bit of a state of disarray right now.