It's not too late to plant garlic

Critiques and suggestions are unbiased and merchandise are independently chosen. Postmedia might earn an affiliate fee from purchases made by hyperlinks on this web page.

Article content material

Q. I’m about to plant my garlic, hoping it’s not too late. Is all of it proper to plant in the identical place in consecutive years?

Article content material

A. It’s not too late. I planted mine simply 10 days in the past — later than ordinary, however I waited till rain had completely dampened the soil and funky fall climate had arrived. These are needed circumstances for the planted cloves to root effectively.

Article content material

I keep away from utilizing the identical location from yr to yr for garlic planting. In some conditions it could work, however over a few years of planting garlic, I’ve used the identical house as within the earlier yr solely as soon as. That second planting in the identical web site was closely stricken with rust — the one time I’ve ever had rust in my garlic crops.

Q. I’m making an attempt to determine why my onion bulbs had been smaller than ordinary this yr.

A. Planting late, lean soils and overcrowding of the creating crops are widespread causes for onion bulbs failing to dimension up properly. Onions are recognized to be “grasping feeders” requiring a fertile, humus-rich, constantly effectively dampened soil.

Article content material

This yr, the Might warmth wave set again many plantings, together with onions, simply because the younger foliage was creating. A few of my younger crops collapsed within the warmth. I’ll have shade material able to cowl them subsequent spring.

The event of robust, substantial foliage in bulb onions by the spring is required to supply onion bulbs of a passable dimension.

One of many first indoor seedings I make every year is onions — often in February, for transplanting as early as circumstances allow in late March or early April, to present as a lot time as potential for the crops to develop an abundance of foliage through the lead-up to the summer season solstice in late June.

As day size begins to decrease after that, onions go into the bulb formation section. The bigger and stronger the onion foliage is at that time, the bigger would be the bulbs.

Share this text in your social community