Thoughts from Starlight Cascade

Image from 2023 drying
This morning was maybe5-6 hours of harvesting garlic out of the VegBed#4.
It is DONE!
The next step is several hours work in hanging it to dry in the garage with the door open but blocked from critters, windows open and fans blowing air through.
About 3-4 weeks of this and then the garlic bulbs will be cut off from the upper leaves and lower roots, weighed, measured and stored in the cold room.

The 2023 Garlic Harvest is complete.
Over the course of 4 mornings, Kim dug up, organized, tied and hung up approx 1392 garlic plants.
They dried over the next 3 to 4 weeks, got cleaned, weighed and measured.
This past year we planted 75 types of garlic:

Name # bulbs totalweight(g) averageweight(g)
Armenian(2015) 14 693 50
artichoke formidable 25 571 23
chloe 6 231 39
continental(2021) 7 216 31
crème de la rasa 2019 15 629 42
czech broadleaf 8 141 18
dujanski 7 182 26
F3V 15 406 27
Fishlake Ted F1(2015) 30 823 27
Fishlake Ted F21 20 562 28
Fishlake Ted F23 40 860 22
Fishlake Ted F3 42 2116 50
Fishlake Ted F30 52 2012 39
Fishlake Ted F40 31 846 27
Fishlake Ted F7 24 536 22
french 16 288 18
genki 24 590 25
georgia crystal 7 194 28
georgia fire 7 164 23
Georgian (2018) 16 562 35
german red 17 658 39
german white 18 417 23
Hungarian(2015) 59 3528 60
inchelium 19 722 38
italian lorenz 15 379 25
italian purple (2019 perth) 31 1296 42
italian sicilian (2018) 13 530 41
japanese 8 230 29
japanese sikura 7 116 17
Khabar 4 189 47
kilkarney (2021) 8 194 24
Koji (2019) 15 538 36
Kostyns Red Russian 8 321 40
korean purple 8 156 20
lakota 14 597 43
lucian sicilian 9 927 103
Marino(2016) 26 874 34
mennonite 54 3705 69
Mexican Red Silver 14 209 15
music (2019) 18 697 39
newfoundland (2019) 24 1573 66
northern quebec 16 788 49
nothern siberian 8 174 22
northumberland 8 673 84
omas 8 277 35
polish jenn 15 509 34
port au george (2019) 20 518 26
purple glazer 24 729 30
railway creek (2019) 30 910 30
red rezan 25 399 16
Roja (2019 fa) 24 1819 76
rose de lautrec 15 228 15
Rosewood(2015) 23 1195 52
russian red 25 1127 45
Saltspring Select(2016) 16 597 37
seversky palisek 12 212 18
siberian marble 7 250 36
Sicilian Gold(2016) 17 697 41
silverskin40 26 757 29
slovak 8 265 33
spanish antihelion(2015) 31 865 28
spicy korean 18 915 51
sweet candy(2015) 24 1000 42
transylvanian 15 693 46
ttv5 14 322 23
us polish 8 192 24
us republican 7 186 27
us romanian 7 255 36
vampire 7 193 28
Wettergren(2016) 14 346 25
wild garlic 16 785 49
wyld garlic 14 417 30
yugo red (2018) 15 570 38
zemo 8 177 22
garden 3 unknown
total 1320
min 4 116 15
average 18 669 35
max 59 3705 103
loss of 1392-1320=72 bulbs

This is a little hard to read outside of a spreadsheet.. here are the top ten performers by average weight

Name averageweight(g)
lucian sicilian 103
northumberland 84
Roja (2019 fa) 76
mennonite 69
newfoundland (2019) 66
Hungarian(2015) 60
Rosewood(2015) 52
spicy korean 51
Fishlake Ted F3 50
Armenian(2015) 50

The 2023 Garlic Harvest is complete. Over the course of 4 mornings, Kim dug up, organized, tied and hung up approx 1392 garlic plants. They will dry over the next 3 to 4 weeks and then come down, get cleaned, weighed and measured. Then they go up for sale 🙂
This past year we planted 75 types of garlic, including:
Armenian(2015)
artichoke formidable
chloe
continental(2021)
crème de la rasa 2019
czech broadleaf
dujanski
F3V
Fishlake Ted F1(2015)
Fishlake Ted F21
Fishlake Ted F23
Fishlake Ted F3
Fishlake Ted F30
Fishlake Ted F40
Fishlake Ted F7
french
genki
georgia crystal
georgia fire
Georgian (2018)
german red
german white
Hungarian(2015)
inchelium
itaian lorenz
italian purple (2019 perth)
italian sicilian (2018)
japanese
japanese sikura
Khabar
kilkarney (2021)
Koji (2019)
Kostyns Red Russian
korean purple
lakota
lucian sicilian
Marino(2016)
mennonite
Mexican Red Silver
music (2019)
newfoundland (2019)
northern quebec
nothern siberian
northumberland
omas
polish jenn
port au george (2019)
purple glazer
railway creek (2019)
red rezan
Roja (2019 fa)
rose de lautrec
Rosewood(2015)
russian red
Saltspring Select(2016)
seversky palisek
siberian marble
Sicilian Gold(2016)
silverskin40
slovak
spanish antihelion(2015)
spicy korean
sweet candy(2015)
transylvanian
ttv5
us polish
us republican
us romanian
vampire
Wettergren(2016)
wild garlic
wyld garlic
yugo red (2018)
zemo
garden 3 unknown

Last year (2022 harvest), the heaviest bulb averages were:
Armenian (54g)
italian purple (2019) (56g)
khabar (52g)
mennonite (50g)
newfoundland (70g)
northern quebec (54g)
roja (99g)
rosewood (51g)
russian red (56g)

And it is DONE! The SCGO Garlic Planting of 2022. It went quicker and easier than past years, thanks to a lot of prep work up front. cracking the bulbs ahead of time, each in its own labelled paper bags with name and number of cloves. All of the signage prepped, counted and sorted. And then the fantastic weather of 20C with a nice breeze.
In past years we have planted at night, with floodlights with rain, sleet and snow coming down. No More!
We planted on Saturday morning Oct 22 and on Sunday afternoon Oct 23.

So, we used the 8 hole Dibbler Mark II, 8 spikes in the dibbler, each 1 3/8″ diameter and 7″ long with 5″ spacing between spikes. Two extending bars measured distance between rows, we used 6″ between rows.
We used two poles to hold onto it whilst jumping on each end and in the middle to get ground penetration.

Unfortunately the dibbler outpaces our human capabilities. We typically move backwards down the bed with feet spread across the 40″ so as to not compact the soil. So of us cannot straddle 40″ anymore 🙂 As well, with 8, larger spikes rather than the Dibbler Mark I, 6 smaller diameter spikes, the absolute PSI driving into the ground is much less. Even jumping up and down on the dibbler into damp soil, it rarely achieve the 7″ depth. We aim for the clove to be 4-5 ” below grade and with the shape of the spike, incomplete depth, this works out for us.

So next year we are planning to move to a narrowed Mark III dibbler, either back to the original 6 hole model or an intermediate 7 hole model. Same force on top with fewer spikes means more PSI per spike, hopefully going deeper than this one did this year.

We planted in VegBed5’s eastern end going from north to south. The signage is laminated laser printed names staples to 1×2″x1′ stakes. This naming system has shown to stand up to time the best of all others. The print is facing north, to avoid sunlight.

The first sub-bed had 38 rows, then 40, 43, 38 and 16, totalling 175 rows * 8 cloves per row = 1400 cloves!
It took just over an hour for each sub-bed and in total about 5-6 hours planting

One last task is to cover them with straw to protect them from direct sunlight and the freeze/thaw cycles that happen over winter. Once frozen they should stay frozen until spring.

The number of varieties planted this year: 18+21+17+18+4=78
We cut down on the number of types this year, as many of the smaller yields just did not make the cut. We expanded the number of planted cloves in those varieties that did particularly well, like Fishlake and Hungarian.

The planting method:

1) we planted stakes at the beginning and end of the subbed, a measured distance away from the fence to allow for a walking path. A string was tied to give a line to work on.

2) the subbed was raked over to get as flat of a surface as possible.

3) The first dibber went in up against the beginning stake. Each subsequent dibble lined up with the string and used the two extension bars to mark 6″ from the last set of holes.

4) Name stakes went in on the opposite side of the string. Each row got its own namestake. As this was going on, Kim would get the next bag, check the name against the stake and start planting about 4-5″ down, or as deep as we could get. Because the 40″ wide row was too wide and we did not want to go around from one side to the other, we would plant two twos and then rake them over to fill in the holes, and then step forward onto the space to plant the next rows, etc. etc.

5) Once the subbed was done, the string came off and two more beginning and end stakes were measured and driven in for the next subbed.
Later today the straw will go on top of the garlic, protecting it against extremes of light and temperature.