Garlic Harvest Report 2013

It's hard to believe more than a year and half has passed since my last update, but its true.  Since my last update a few things have happened:

• Liz and I decided to have a kid
• Liz and I got engaged
• Liz and I found out she was pregnant
• I turned 37
• Liz graduated from grad school
• Liz and I got married
• I started running
• River was born
• I ran my first 5k and 10k races

And that's just the big stuff that I can think of right now, who knows how much other stuff I'm forgetting right now.

Anyway, I can't find all my notes from last year's planting (fall 2012), so I've got to guess at how much I planted for my harvest report.

Of the garlic I saved, I have only a rough guess at how much I actually planted. I harvested 153 heads of saved garlic.  40 heads are categorized as 'unknown' because I lost the map to the bed.  113 heads were harvested of Siberian Purple.  This strain of Siberian Purple is the third generation grown by me.  I'm tempted to start referring to it as Buckland Purple.  Of the 113 heads, about 10 were planted in the uppermost bed behind the house, the other 100 were planted on one of the side beds.  The heads harvested from the upper bed were approximately two to three times larger than the heads in the side bed.  

The 'unknown' garlic is probably less than 50% of what I planted.  By 'probably' I mean definitely.  I'm guessing I planted somewhere between 80-100 cloves.

I tried several new varieties this year, as well as some types I've grown before, but from new sources or in a different bed.  In 2012, we tried Music and Rosewood, however we had horrible problems with rot.  We planted them again this year, but in different beds.  Music still suffered significant (tragic even) losses to rot (more than 50%).  The Rosewood did well, but still had problems with rot (14%).  The 'new' varieties had mixed results.  Overall there was significant loss due to rot (35%), but many of the heads produced were large and well formed.

To sum up, I'm estimating I planted 550 cloves and the total harvest is somewhere around 360 (count right now is 367).  Over the course of the summer, several heads were harvested, somewhere around 5.  That puts loss at about 35%, by far the worst year so far.  Much of the problem with rot this year was likely due to three factors:

• Late harvesting - I waited probably 10 days too long to harvest.  Had I pulled the garlic earlier, the heavy rains in the middle of July would've not been an issue.
• Heavy soil / poor drainage -  The beds used this last year have very heavy soil in them and are about 6" deep before hitting the fill dirt/rock.  I would think that this would result in beds that drain pretty well, but I'm left wondering if I need to amend the soil with some lighter agents.
• Too thick mulch - In the ever lasting battle with weeds, I left the mulch on too thick over the summer.  Next year, I will pull all the mulch and re-mulch with fresh straw in the spring.  The fresh layer will be just thick enough suppress weed growth. 

A lot of the garlic is still drying, going on two weeks at this point and not even close to dry for bigger heads of Rosewood, Conway Red and Music.  The smaller heads and the softneck are pretty much dry, but until I work out storage, they're staying outside to continue drying.  Next up will be sorting for planting and storage.  I should have plenty for planting and will likely be able to give a good amount away, but I'm worried about storage.  Since much of the garlic stayed in the ground too long, the papers are thin.

This year the garden's productivity is looking fair, but it's disappointing considering the amount of work I've put into it.  I think I've learned a good bit this last year, so next year I should be getting closer to what I want, a garden that is semi-automated.  Have the beds built, have a regular rotation of crops and have my regular varieties selected for seed saving.  Starting next year, I'd like to plant 90% saved garlic.  The year following I'd like to save squash seeds.  Tomatoes and peppers I'm still working on starting successfully, so those will be a while yet.

So, that's that.  Approximately 367 heads of garlic harvested and drying.  Of that 367, about 70 are cleaned and ready for consumption.  The rest are clean, but need to be trimmed and sorted for planting.