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: We have nesting garlic. All right, you’re right. Garlic doesn’t lay eggs. But it does reproduce just like every living thing on this planet. And we want it to reproduce as abundantly as possible. And so what does that look like? First thing in spring here in zone five, it is the end of April. And you can see how gloriously almost 8-10 inches, our garlic is. Different varieties are going to be different heights at this time; the really gangbuster varieties are going to be this tall. This is our extra hardy German White, and we are feeding them right now. And now is the perfect time because they aren’t showing any signs of yellowing tips, the soil is really beginning to warm, but it’s still really cold. And so cold soils don’t have as many nutrients abundantly available for growing plants. So we want to be sure that they are not struggling for any nutrients whatsoever.
So here we are. And I’m about to feed them for the first time this season. And I’m going to feed them with our fish emulsion. And this fish emulsion is an amazingly concentrated liquid. It’s both fish and kelp. And the thing that I love about it friends is that it’s a byproduct. It’s not like we’re going out and anyone is fishing for fish specifically for fish emulsion. It’s bycatch. It’s a waste product that would be otherwise forming toxicity in other environments. But instead, our friends are actually translating it, transmuting it into this hyper-concentrated liquid. That is not only classic NPK. But it has over 100 micronutrients as well. So it’s impressively nutrient-dense and great for plants, we actually get this by the 50-gallon barrel, for Fruition Seeds, for our farm. But a little goes a long way; an ounce of this concentrated liquid goes into a gallon of water, one ounce of fish emulsion into one gallon of water. So a little definitely goes a long way.
So here for our garlic, I made a gallon of water and mixed it up with an ounce of fish emulsion and mix it up really well. And then I’m pouring about a half cup as a good solid glug onto each of my plants. And I’m trying to get that as close to the root base as possible. And so here let’s back up for another moment because you can see our soil, here’s our approach. And we’re constantly refining, which I highly recommend you do in your gardens as well. We’re constantly just experimenting and seeing what works best. We really like these days to just weed a little bit in the fall, not mulch in the fall. And that way we find the emergence in spring is that much more quick because the mulch acts as an insulation not only in the winter, but also in the spring. And so the soil doesn’t warm up as quickly. So we really want them to get a hustle on the season. So they emerge that much more quickly.
And then in the spring when there isn’t mulch on them. And then we let a number of the weeds grow. We’ll do some just quick hoeing once, and then we’ll feed them once and then we will be putting on like six inches of mulch. And lots of mulch totally works. So hands down my favorite is leaves, deciduous leaves, fed through a chipper-shredder. But straw is typically what we use because we have it in the larger, larger quantities. We have about 1000 bulbs of garlic growing. So I mean, it’s a little easier for us to get that quantity of mulch versus chips, shredded leaves, but you can use anything else that you might have on hand. And certainly in summer grass clippings totally work.
But here’s the thing: you really want to be sure that you’re mulching them impressively well. Because if you have six inches of material, it’s going to compact. And any time that it actually is compacting and sun is actually hitting the soil, weeds are going to be growing. And as soon as you have a mulch, you’re not going to be able to do any weeding except hand weeding — which is the hardest, most tedious, least fun weeding you can possibly do. So I like to get the spring weeds that first flush. Get them out with a hoe ,feed all of these fresh new lovelies with a half cup of glorious fish emulsion as close to that base as possible and then mulch them. So that’s our spring strategy.
Another thing that I don’t think I mentioned yet that is so critical. You can see the soil is nice and moist. And it often is in spring. But it’s really important when you are drenching plants, especially garlic in spring, but anytime you’re about to apply nutrients to the soil, you want the soil to be moist. That way that moisture will actually help distribute the soil more quickly. Oops, pardon me distribute the nutrients more quickly, more deeply. And that depth is really important because you want to be inspiring those roots to be going down as deep as possible. Because especially here in the northeast, it’s really variable. Sometimes it rains for two weeks, right, and other times it won’t rain for two weeks. And either way, having a really robust root system is one of the best things to give your plants the best shot at being as healthy and abundant as possible.
So just be sure when you’re putting down your fish emulsion for anything, but especially your garlic going to spring. Choose a day when the soil is really nice and moist, not muddy by any means, but nice and moist so that the water can soak right in and go as deep as possible.
Happy spring friends and as you’re weeding and feeding and mulching your garlic this spring, listen for all the birds that have arrived this morning. The Kingfisher and cat bird arrived as well. So happy spring; happy sowing; happy feeding; happy everything.
