allium...it's all allium

i had forgotten about the egyptian walking onions...planted last autumn and up this past spring they were completely subsumed by the winter vetch and its climbing ways...i had already come tot he conclusion that s green manures go winter vetch is as problematic as cow peas and will have to go as a concept...this batch his going to seed sop i will be pulling it and composting it rather than turning it under and another plant will have to be found...the onions are still there, if feeble and atrophied ( second and third photos )...and i am inclined to overwinter them and see what come up next spring ( i also purchased more sets to plant in the fall )...the plants develop aerial bulbs which pull the stem down with their weight and the bulbs root creating another generation...these tried their best under adverse conditions and did produce some ( fourth and fifth photos )...i am not sure if these are viable...we will be planting these as well to see...it is a family trait...following harsh winters soft neck garlic will produce aerial bulbs as well like the ones on red inchelium in the last two photos from last season...it is all in the allium family...genetics do not lie.

sharply warmer

volatility extends well beyond the market and oil prices ( which are, wiser heads than mine say, "unsustainable at current price levels"...inclined to agree...it isn't an unlimited commodity...finite supply + continued consumption = higher prices...simple free market math...but that's another post...and, probably, a different blog )...it is present in the climate in my back yard which, after short dip in temperatures, has returned to unseasonably high temperatures and rain...plants are confused ( although many respond to day length and not temperature...those have died back or are dormant ) the curly kale is booming along....i found a garlic bulb hanging pout of a deteriorating peat pot...it was one of the red inchelium aerial bulb i planted in september...the weather has it chugging along towards sprouting...i found it a new home...the garlic is being obdurate elsewhere as well as it continues to insist on poking up through the mulch...if there ever is winter i will add more straw...if winter fails to materialize there will be finished garlic in april...hard to call this one so far...there are still unshattered teosinte seeds out there...hanging around the ears..even if they are viable ( and i have my doubts )they need some cycles of cold to break dormancy...which the ramps i planted last autumn need as well...and the eastern gamagrass seed i am trying to "naturalize" out there...this "el nino" will be disruptive of more than a white christmas...drought next summer?...don't count it out

unidentified

in september i planted aerial bulbs for the soft neck garlic red inchelium in peat pots and left them outside to see what, if anything, would come up...on the twelfth of this month i found the plant in the top photo growing and brought it in ( second photo ) assuming it was garlic...i am still 99% sure it is garlic ( no absolutes ) but that dark band around the base of the stem bothers me...the third photo is of a northern tepehuan teosinte seedling in the back yard last april...it has a dark band around the base as well...the fourth photo is of some garlic that sprouted after i planted it last september...it is not red inchelium and does not have a dark band either...so...the "red" part of red inchelium is probably responsible for the dark band...the mature garlic bulbs were adorned with reddish streaks as were the aerial bulbs...just a note on the tricky business of plant identification...not always that simple a task...be sure before you eat.

garlic

parker! and friend met me in the garden this morning to continue with fall planting...we turned some compost into a couple of beds and then planted some red inchelium garlic...we used compost because the garlic beds will have to be thoroughly mulched for winter which precludes using green manures in those beds...the garlic bulbs were fairly large and the cloves ( fifth photo ) ranged from "normal" to absolutely huge...in all we planted sixty cloves...last season we had about three quarters of what we planted produce so we are counting on at least forty-five producing plants next spring...and while we're talking production, the sixth photo is of a nascent cauliflower...one of three we found today and the seventh neatly captures some happy second season asparagus "ferning" and parker! in mid-stride...most of the alfalfa i planted over, i believe, labor day weekend has developed its first true leaf...well on the way to being winter hardy...so i added more alfalfa seed to bare areas of the beds and tossed in some winter rye to act as a soil binding agent and a reservoir for excess nitrogen...the season is definitely winding down along with september...the cauliflower and brussels sprouts are in a race with frost...the beans and cukes are done...there are a few spuds left chugging away and next month sees the jerusalem artichoke harvest...november will see the garlic and asparagus mulch and then the season move indoors for seed potato production...we slow down...we don't stop.

soft neck garlic ( with a side of teosinte )

remember these? this is some red inchelium garlic i harvested from my yard back in june sometime...it is a soft necked garlic and soft neck has a peculiar defense mechanism when it overwinters through very cold winters...like last winter here...it produces clove above ground as a mechanism to insure reproduction...one result, among others, is smaller in ground bulbs because of the energy the plant expends above ground......you can see once the skin is peeled back that they produced multiple small cloves...the one in the third photo produced seven, and, in all, i got nineteen...i filled peat pots with ( fittingly enough ) peat humus and planted the cloves ( i know there are only fourteen pots in the photo...i made up five more after i took that ) so, if it all works out, there will be nineteen locally produced garlic plants to plant in the community garden later this autumn...very few miles on these plants ( about 7 ) when they are transported...i have seed garlic on the way in case this is a dud of a project..my thoughts are it will generate at least some plants...and that i will have garlic to share later if anyone wants some...while i was distributing pots around the back yard to await germination i found more teosinte silks and nascent ears...you knew i'd share that.

teosinte and garlic

the northern tepehuan teosinte in my yard is flowering nicely...there is a third plant with a flower just emerging and the single plant on campus has flowered as well so there should be enough cross pollination to ( hopefully ) produce ears before the frosts hit...the mail brought a box of red inchelium seed garlic from baker creek heirloom seeds...five bulbs with enough cloves to start thirty-five plants...there's another half pound on the way from sustainable seeds so there will around sixty plants worth altogether...enough to share around and begin fall planting in the community garden this coming weekend...so there will be bed clearing for garlic as well as green manures and cover crops in the offing...as a bonus they sent a packet of red romaine lettuce seeds...lettuce and garlic will be among the very first things up in the garden next spring along with a mix of snow peas and spinach as the opening salvo in a season-long rotation of crops for continuous harvest ( or, as continuous as we can make it )...this season isn't over but it's not too early to start a plan for the next.