Allium is not lost

Garlic Plait

After my worries with the garlic I am very pleased with the results of my first attempt to plait them. I tried following the directions given from the Garlic Farm on the Isle of Wight but could not grasp it until I found a pictorial sequence froman American farm site Bloomingfieldsfarms and realised that you just keep three strands and do centre – right - left repeatedly.

Shown are twenty five Solent Wight garlic. I planted thirty cloves but some were eaten, some split and some rotted . The largest are about 3cms diameter. Weighs in at 635grams.

I suspect I may plant one or two of the other varieties but in general I don’t think I gained much from the other thirty odd bulbs. Early Purple, Chesnok Wight, Albigensian Wight, Iberian Wight and Lautrec. The Early just did not seem to work at all but the others provided acceptable garlic.

We haven’t investigated how they differ in flavour yet.

The Onions

 Two for the price of one today. I decided not to risk losing more of the onions to rot or any other so here are 100 of my finest Red Baron, White Prince and New Fen Globe drying in the brief sun. I must try to devise a better rack for drying them.

Overall I ended up with 86 New Fen Globe, 77 Red Baron and 45 White Prince a total of 208 out of about 300 planted. Next year I will definitely not put them so close together as the whites were particularly badly hit by rust and rot.

Garlic at last

Garlic

I finally decided enough was enough and lifted most of the garlic this weekend. I left them out in the sun on Sunday and then hung them in the garage.

I was very pleased to find that both of the Elephant Garlic bulbs from the allotment were a good size at just over 4″ across. The one planted in the garden and then moved to a pot was less successful! Until I saw its siblings I though it was an ordinary onion at about 3cm across. Lots of baby ones attached so I’ll try to grow those on for later years.

I couldn’t resist showing them off and Dave – the allotment long-timer – gave me a great compliment by saying that he would be proud if he had grown one like it. (He has in the past and being Dave he also mentioned that it wouldn’t win the prize in the flower show because it wasn’t a cabbage!)

There should be enough over all for me to save some of each type to start next years crop and I will definitely try the Bordeaux mixture sooner to reduce the effect of Rust.

From the front and left:

Onions: Red Baron, New Fen Globe and White Prince. the biggest about 3″ across

Garlic: Early Purple,  Iberian Wight ( the big white bunch cos I’ve cleaned them)

Elephant Garlic: the tiny one and the two giant ones ( 105mm 4.2″)

Garlic: Albigensian Wight, Solent Wight, Lautrec Wight and Chesnok Wight

There are still about 15 Solent wight to lift and I can’t see them improving now.

I investigated and a very few white onions in the close spaced middle bed do have what looks like white rot after all so my 5 year rotation plan may be necessary after all. I pulled up quite a number of those that looked as though they were struggling and I’ll keep a very close watch on the remaining ones so I don’t lose them. The other bed appears unaffected so far.