Spring 2024 Side-dressing the plants
It is March 16, 2024 in Monticello, KY at Lynn and Jim’s garlic farm and the garlic is as high as I’d expect in late April or May. It has grown so well in the new beds Jim built last fall. The latest planted cloves—planted in October 2023— are the plants in the foreground of north bed in first pic. The variety closest to the camera are Thai Fire whose cloves are quite small and their plants are also smaller than the very large-cloved Music and Inchellium Red behind the first few rows of plants. I am very pleased with the growth.
Thai Fire in foreground, last planted, will be first harvested. New Music seed next 2 rows. Inchellium Red, the rest of bed.
Because we purchased new soil, sand, and compost for these new beds, I took soil samples (before amending the soil) and have sent it off through the Wayne County Extension agent to be tested by UK, I believe. Those results won’t be back for three weeks or so. I’m very curious to find out the composition of the nutrients in this purchased soil and sand. I made the normal soil amendments (recommended on the last soil test of our property soil), and I’m surprised by how quickly and how large the plants grew last fall. They stood during the winter, as usual, and look very strong now. I wonder if they will finish their growing season early due to the earlier planting date—September (which is recommended for zone 6 here in KY) instead of October—and due to whatever nutrients were in the purchased soil.
Broadleaf Czech garlic March 2024 growth from first-planted cloves last September.
I’m glad I planted the short season Thai Fire last—in October. That wasn’t planned. It just happened that when we were here and I could plant the last of my seed garlic, it was October and Thai Fire was all I had left to plant. Now the Thai Fire is growing strong and I expect it to finish and be yellowing the top leaves before the other varieties because it is a short season variety of garlic. Amazing how it packs so much heat into its cloves in such a short amount of time! The thing about short season varieties, they also have a short storage life. So the cook must use them within a couple months once they are harvested.
I will wait for the soil test results before I side-dress the plants this spring. I want to know what nutrients the Extension agent recommends is needed for vegetables, or what the soil may already have more of than it needs, before I add any other amendments. When I return to our Louisville garlic plantings, I will side-dress as usual since we’ve grown garlic on that garden site for many years, so I’m confident I can rely on past soil tests this spring.
In case you are wondering what my usual side-dressings are, in Louisville, KY I use organic green potash (potassium source) and organic feathermeal (nitrogen source); however, since the soil has had plenty of phosphorous in soil tests, I don’t amend that. I do add a tablespoon per plant of Epsom Salts (magnesium source), because our tomato plants (with blossom-end rot) have revealed the need for that in the past. Since the Epsom salts are water-soluble, they wash away eventually.
Please, be clear, I’m not suggesting you go out and side-dress your garlic plants with these amendments. Do a soil test to see what your soil needs for growing garlic and other vegetables. Amend for those nutrients when the recommendations come back with your soil composition results. Every Kentucky county has an Extension Service where you can have the soil tests done. Often one or two tests per year may be done for free, so it’s worth your effort to be able to organically amend your soil to grow the healthiest crops.