Exiting October

Today we began planting the saved garlic cloves into some very dry soil. Our garlic has been saved annually since 2004 and is now a unique variety, or a unique mix of varieties because they're technically clone cloves and aren't mixing genes. We do set aside the biggest bulbs to split into seed so we're influencing it that way.

Each season we aim to increase the amount of garlic planted for the following season's harvest. This year we're adding about 500' more, increasing from 3000' to 3500' total. That's about 21,000 cloves to plant, or 425 pounds. After each clove is tucked into the soil, we'll cover the entire area with a thick layer of straw. For the first time ever, we may even need to add water to ensure the cloves wake up and break dormancy sooner rather than later.

Speaking of moisture, this will be the first time in 16 seasons I'll be entering a '0' for precipitation total for a calendar month. For comparison's sake, during the April-October timeframe, this season the rain we received was 20" less than last season and 15" less than our 16-year average. Pretty astounding if you ask me. However, the silver lining is that the crops have been thriving with regular well-water drinks and we've had less pest and disease pressure overall. Assuming it will rain again at some point, maybe we'll catch up on the deficit this fall and winter.