Garlic Growers' Annual Field Day - June 8, 2013

Down the quiet country roads, the little villages looked like stage props in the early morning light. The skies were overcast and there were a few showers during the morning, but it didn't dampen anyone's spirits.

The photos are sequential and some have a descriptive note beneath ... the write up about the day follows the photos.

We first toured the Brant County Garlic Company fields and then the University of Guelph's test fields (zone 6a), where we heard presentations by a Plant Pathologist and a Vegetable Crop/Leek Moth Specialist. From there, we hopped back into our buses and were given a peek into the Boot Farm garlic scallion cleaning process, where the garlic was being prepared for the local markets. We then went on to a small Mennonite farm that was also growing Music garlic.

During these excellent presentations, we learned that bulb and stem nematodes are one of the serious garlic pests. Once established, they can kill the whole crop and continue to infect the soil for a long time. We were shown samples of diseased plants and reminded about the importance of disease-free seed, as well as the importance of crop rotation, which is ideally a four to five year rotation for garlic.

Another interesting piece of information we learned was that the other crops grown in non-garlic years can also be hosts for the same nematodes, so it's important to choose carefully! A very interesting finding is that if you grow mustard as a cover crop (certain varieties are recommended), you can "fumigate" your soil naturally by chopping up the mustard cover crop into small shreds and immediately burying it in the soil and tamping it down. The chopped mustard plant releases gasses that kill nematodes within 24 hours. After that, the soil is ready for any kind of planting two weeks later.

We certainly will be very cautious about garlic diseases, as they can be devastating to the crops. Chives, leeks, onions, etc. can all be disease and pest carriers as well. We were warned against composting any garlic or onion waste, as even that could infect your soil.

The event was attended by about 50 people, and it was a very inspiring day.  Registration is required, but admission is free, and lunch is included. We learned a lot and plan to attend it again next year.

While we're not planning to go commercial and buy a larger property to enable us to grow garlic, we will be planting more next year because it doesn't seem to matter how much you grow; it is never enough : )