On the left is last year’s garlic field. Harvested and incorporated. The straw mulch is on its way to become soil organic matter.
On the right is next year’s garlic field. Ready to plant except for one thing. It’s been raining. and the ground is wet.
Now is the waiting for a run of dry days to get the team out on the transplanter and slam in a bunch of garlic cloves in record time.
You’re always on the cusp of one thing or another.
And the best you can do is to have a plan, and keep watch on how the world changes so you can adapt that plan.
What will you plant in the harvested garlic field? We turned in two cover crops in our garlic field before planting. We had used the same field for eight years without planting a cover crop, although we added organic material. The bulbs didn’t size up in 2019 although we tested the soil for nutrients and had a good report.
Farmers always figure next year will be better!
We usually follow garlic with a year of cover crop. This turns the mulch residue into some great organic matter.
Did you grow the two garlic fields the same way? Spacing, weeding, mulch and so forth?
Did you plant identical types of garlic cloves in both? As in you didn’t plant the biggest cloves in one field and smaller cloves in another.
Another thing to consider is if one field warms up earlier than the other. And I guess there’s the question of water.
This is just turning into a list!
Good luck with your next garlic crop!
Dan
Genetics didn’t cause the small bulbs. We planted half in another field and they did very well.