We love to share what we love... and we love garlic and shallots! You'll find gorgeous seed garlic & shallots listed here every late Summer/early Fall. And don't forget the fertility... our Organic Garlic and Shallot Fertilizer has specially blended diverse amendments to feed both our soil and our alliums, and in turn, us!
Transcript: Let’s talk garlic and shallots and fertility friends because you can get the highest quality garlic and shallot seed in the world and it just doesn’t matter if they don’t have the quality nutrients and the quantity of nutrients that they need to grow big and beautiful. So there’s a lot to it. Namely, soil tests are amazing, but also making sure that you have ample access to extraordinary nutrients.
Here are my two go tos: first compost, and second, we have some sweet amendments that we’ve dialed in after years of experimentation. So certainly compost accepts no imitations. If you can get it weed, seed free, all the better. And we put six inches on our beds because don’t mess around and you’re feeding the soil, you’re not feeding the garlic, which means you’re ultimately feeding the garlic that much more. But let’s talk about this marvelous thing, the amendments that we put on, because it’s made all the difference for us friends, this last year in 2019, we grew well over 10,000 bulbs of garlic, shallots, and over 95% of them were massive, beautiful seed grade. And that’s exactly why they we grow them. So yes, if you want to grow big, gorgeous, garlic and shallots, I highly recommend lots of compost, and this is our amendment mixture. And Matthew, my partner loves to come up with all kinds of little of blends, and this is the one that he’s landed on for garlic across the seasons. So it’s a combination of animals and vegetables and minerals. And there’s alfalfa meal that’s feather meal, there’s compost crumbles, all kinds of things. So it’s going to short term and long term feed the health of your soil and your garlic so in the fall, it’s going to Make sure that the roots are establishing really, really well but it’s not inspiring the plants too early to be growing that shoot you really don’t want the shoot growing more than three inches tall before the winter comes. Otherwise that shoot acts like a desiccating straw and garlic can withstand impressive cold but it cannot withstand desiccating dry winter winds.
So yes, this mix will short term feed and inspire that garlic when it’s planted in the fall to establish a strong root system but then it’s there first thing in the spring as slow release nutrients and spring soils cool soils, they don’t cycle nutrients nearly as quickly as warm soils and so garlic a heavy heavy feeder. She really benefits from having all those nutrients right at arm’s length. So this ensures that in the soil when it’s coolest when that garlic right after snow is melting and she’s rising up, but she’s got everything she needs to be going for it. So we also have this little packet inside it. And you know most of the bag is and this is good for one pound of garlic and or shallots By the way, and it’s this lovely, lovely Oh yes, it’s a crumble that you incorporate into the compost ideally that you’re incorporating into or on top of the soil if you’re doing no till, which I definitely recommend.
And you’ll find on the top of this bag is an additional bag. And this additional bag has some extra little directions but basically this is bloodmeal that will supply all kinds of extra nitrogen, all kinds of minerals, all kinds of things in like mid May beginning of June just before she’s throwing her scapes and that tends to be the point in garlics life and shallots too where they’ve accessed the vast majority of nutrients at arm’s length and they’re really reaching and anything that you can do, whether it’s fish emulsion that goes along way, but everything in here is going to be feeding slow release and this additional top dressing of the blood meal will go so far and giving your garlic and shallots the extra boost that they need to become massive and beautiful, just in the nick of time. So friends, I’m delighted to share all these things with you. And definitely check out all of our resources on our website on our blog, we have a beautiful online course all about growing massive, gorgeous, organic, garlic and shallots, setting you up for success throughout the seasons. And it is my extraordinary joy to share it all with you.
And thank you so much to all the ancestors who have cultivated these things for millennia. And to all of my friends and mentors who have answered endless questions across the decades and who will continue to indulge my curiosities so these so that I can share them with you.
You’ll find our Organic Garlic & Shallot Fertilizer here!
We also foliar feed with Organic Fish Emulsion every two weeks from mid-April to mid-June, to harvest the biggest, most healthy & nutrient-dense bulbs possible 🙂
