Some garden updates

Garlic

Way back in December I harvested my garlic. An afternoon of digging and tying yielded a good number of bulbs, and after giving some away and using a bunch, I still have a whole lot available today which I use almost every night.

Garlic after harvest

The garlic is sharp and flavourful and exceeds the garlic bought at the shops or markets by a long margin. I divided the garlic into bunches and store in my shed, hanging a bunch in the cupboard until ready for use.

About half of my garlic, bunched and ready to go

Close up of a fresh bulb

Four months later, the bulbs store nicely, ready to be cooked!

Vegetables

After planting up my veggies in Oct/Nov after out frosts, I have unfortunately let things lapse in the commotion around the twins birth. Regardless of this, I still manage to haul a good number of vegetables every week.

Here is today's haul, capsicums, tomatoes, beetroot, chillies, tomato, squash and eggplant.

Todays haul

Tomatoes

My tomato vines were ravaged by the heat this year. Tomatoes literally cooked themselves on the vines, and my inattention caused the vines to sag and drop.

Luckily for me the plants still produced nicely. Two weeks ago we pulled this massive lot from the garden.

Periform Abruzzi

Golden Grape

Tommy Toes

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Raising Seedlings Under Grow Lights and Garlic Update

Garlic Update

The garlic grew all throughout the Canberra winter, and it appears that the hardneck types enjoy the climate more so than the softnecks. The hardneck types are quite large and robust, and the softnecks are wimpy in comparison. The plants have not yet sent up their scape, and are a few months away from harvest. 

It looks like I will have a good number of bulbs in a few months, hopefully enough to last many months!

Growing Nicely

Hardneck vs Softneck Garlic

Raising Seedlings in Canberra's Winter

This year I am growing a number of warm season crops, that require extended periods of warmth to produce, in particular super hot chillis and okra. In order to get the best out of the season I have decided to start these seeds early in an electric propagator under grow lights. I started many of my seedlings in early August, and am continually producing more, as space allows.

To make this process as easy as possible I retrofitted an old cupboard into a seedlings nursery.

An old wardrobe I picked up for $40 and converted into a plant nursery

The Wardrobe When Closed

The wardrobe is particularly useful in our cold winters as it stays between 20-20o C when the ambient temperature is cold, and on a warm day such as today (24o C) the hottest chamber sits at about 30-35o C with the door cracked open. 

I found out the hard way that keeping the door totally closed on a warm day can send temperatures in one of the compartments up to 40o C, and I cooked one or two seedlings in a fiery inferno of death.

Lets take a closer look inside.

Left Hand Chambers

The left hand side has a 250W high pressure sodium lamp with a reflector attached to spread the light.  

The bulb is enclosed in a cool tube, which is ducted to allow cool air to be drawn over the bulb and straight out of the wardrobe, on the right hand side, preventing over heating. This currently works very well, and if anything, the left hand compartment is slightly cool, and I rest some plants on a cardboard box to put them closer to the light for additional heat. I suspect that I could add a 400W bulb without too many heat issues, although as the ambient temperature heats up cooling will become more important. A fan attached to the left hand side of the cool tube is orientated to push air over the cool tube, rather than suck air through.

The fan is powerful enough to suck air from holes drilled in the right hand wall, cooling the right hand chambers as well as the left. The left hand door of the cupboard will drift open if allowed to do its own thing, however the suction is strong enough to keep the door closed as long as the fan is running. On several occasions I have come to find the door has drifted open after the fan goes off, and when it resumes there is no cooling effect in the right hand chambers, and in these cases the temperature has raised to 40o C quite quickly.

This compartment is large enough to hold two medium sized tomato or chilli plants, or one large wide plant. There is approximately 150cm of growing height.

Left Hand Chamber with 250W HPS and Fan Venting Air

Right Hand Chambers

The right hand chambers are split into three compartments; a storage place for the ballast for the HPS as well as all the power boards to operate the heated propagators and compact fluorescent lights, and two growing areas for seedlings and young plants.

The growing areas each have two compact fluorescent growing lights each at 130W, some in a blue-white spectrum, and some in more of a red spectrum. These CFLs produce about 8000 lumens each. These are very bright and leave you with stars in your eyes after looking for too long!

Two Seedling Raising Compartments

Red CFL vs Blue/White CFL

Lights on the Bottom Compartment

In the germinating compartments I have all the seedlings initially started in seed trays on electric heated propagators. I leave the covers on until the first seedling emerges and then remove it. The young seedlings in the above picture are fatalii chillis. 

The top compartment has okra, capsicum, eggplant and tomato seedlings and usually stays at around 30-35oC, the bottom compartment stays slightly cooler at around 25oC (door had been open a while at the time I took this picture so temperature reads a little cooler).

Various Seedlings in a New Larger home 

You can also see throughout the wardrobe I have used reflective silver sheeting and silver tape to maximise the light output from the globes. The sheeting comes on a large roll and is dimpled to prevent the formation of local areas of heat, known as hotspots which can cause heat damage to plants. I attached the reflective sheeting with a combination of glue and reflective tape. 

Light Timers

The lights within the wardrobe are on timers, which leaves the lights on for approximately 18 hours a day, and dark for 6 hours. I have the heated propagators on a seperate timer, with the mats going on for about 2.5 hours and then off for about 1.5 hours. This is because one heating mat was getting too hot and cooking seeds with 24 hour operation.

Timers and Exhaust Ducting

Potting Up Seedlings

I potted up a tray of my seedlings today as I felt they were large enough to be re-homed from the seed-trays they were germinated in. I potted them up in small pots from bunnings, 50c per pot.

When transplanting seedlings it is important to be extremely careful, and to try your best not to disturb the roots if at all possible. These seedlings had not seen natural sunlight before, and had not been hardened off in any way, and in such situations it is important not to leave them sitting in the full sun and wind for hours, as it may do damage to the tender plants.

Before Potting Up

After Potting Up

When potting up or transplanting seedlings it is important to consider the growth habit of each plant as this can affect the way you transplant. For instance the okra in the above photo have a tap root which if damaged will significantly stunt the growth or even kill the plant. Tomatoes on the other hand are much more resilient, and will even sprout new roots from the stem (still be careful though!). 

Tomatoes can actually be planted to just below the depth of the first leaves and this will strengthen the plant as it will develop a more comprehensive root system, sprouting roots all along its stem. Other plants will damp off and rot away if you plant the seedling below the depth where it originally grew. 

The plants above have been placed in a mixture of seed raising mix, bagged compost, perlite and diatomaceous earth. I also water them with a dilute solution of water and seaweed to help with transplant shock.

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New Garlic Bed

Today I planted out my garlic. I bought three varieties, which had all been certified organic; Red Rocambole, Monaro Purple and Italian White.

Be Careful Which Garlic You Plant!

With garlic, it is important to only plant organic, or Australian Garlic that has not been subjected to fumigation or chemical treatment.

In order to destroy any pests that may be imported all garlic is treated with some fairly harsh chemicals, in particular methyl bromide, which is highly toxic. Garlic is also often bleached to achieve a really white skin. Finally store bought garlic is often treated with a growth inhibitor to stop the garlic sprouting whilst still in the store, to prolong shelf life. This means that it often wont sprout at all, and will have stunted growth.

Garlic Types

Garlic comes in several different types, but there are two prominent types; softnecks and hardnecks. Softneck garlic varieties are a little harder to grow, and can be braided together once harvested. Softneck varieties are reported to store better than hardneck types.

Hardneck garlic is different to softnecks in that they grow a scrape, which is the garlic flower. Garlic scrapes form as a curled long stem, and can be eaten, providing a milder garlic taste than the cloves themselves. Some people say that removing the scrapes as they form will result in larger bulbs, as the garlic devotes it's energy into bulb formation. Others however say that bulbs will be larger if the scrape remains intact. Hardneck varieties enjoy a cooler climate than softnecks.

Of the garlic I have chosen to grow, the Red Rocambole and Monaro Purple are both hardneck varieties, and the Italian White is a softneck type. On planting the bulbs, I noticed that the hardneck varieties had larger but fewer bulbs, whilst the softneck had small but plentiful bulbs.

Planting Garlic

There are two schools of thought on when to plant garlic. Some say to plant close to the Autumn equinox, which falls on March 20, whilst others say to plant closer to the Winter Solstice. Reading other blogs in Australia, in-particular here I have decided to plant earlier, as I predict an unusually cold winter this year.

When planting garlic, separate the bulb into its individual cloves and plant pointy-side up. When planting it is not necessary to remove all the paper-like wrapping around the cloves, but it is important to ensure that some of the base root-plate remains. Don't separate the individual cloves from the bulbs until right before planting, as they store better intact.

Garlic should be planted about 10-20cms apart, and about 3-4cm deep.  I have planted mine a little closer, about 10cm apart, as I ran out of room in my bed! This is likely to result in smaller cloves when I harvest.

Garlic requires at least two months of cool temperature to induce bulb formation.

Harvesting Garlic

Garlic takes many months to form. Initially the bulbs will send up a stalk and develop a root system before cold winter weather sets in. After this, the bulb chills for a minimum of two months and the bulb itself develops after soil begins to heat up after winter.

With the onset of spring the bulbs will send up leaves and hardneck varieties will send up a scrape. Garlic is harvested when the leaves start to die-back with the onset of hotter weather.

This is my first year growing garlic, and I will add updates as I go.

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