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Old 02-07-2017, 08:43 PM posted to rec.gardens.edible
T[_4_] T[_4_] is offline
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First recorded activity by GardenBanter: Jan 2015
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Default onions, garlic, shallots and water question

On 07/01/2017 08:25 AM, songbird wrote:
T wrote:
songbird wrote:
T wrote:
Hi All,

On my onions, shallots and garlic, when the stocks start to lose their
green and dry out, do I still keep watering them until the stocks
completely lose their green? What are the rules?

"stalks"

once they start dying back i'd ease off on
watering and stop once they reach the 1/3 die
back stage (where one third of the leaves have
gone brown).


What do you mean by "ease off"? I currently
water them once a day. I use my zukes as an
indicator. If I do not water enough, their
leaves wilt.


not water as much. since i don't know
your soils/water holding capacity or how deep
the garlic is planted and things like local
rains, i can't give you a number. i just mean
"less than before" and stop completely when
they hit the 1/3 leaves die off stage as then
they are done as far as i'm concerned and will
be lifted for harvest/curing.

if you notice that they are rotting a lot
that is probably a good sign that you are
overwatering late in their life-cycle. i
have that problem here at times because we get
rains that i can't do all that much about and
the clay soil holds moisture.

i think i have a few weeks yet before i get
to harvest the garlic.

tons of scapes now that i need to remove
because i sure don't need the garlic to spread
any more than it already is. never got back to
my project this year of digging more of them
out. too many other things going on.


songbird


Thank you!

They are about 2/3 leave die off. So I will
cut back to maybe once a week or not at all.
There is one on the end that is still 100% green.
Maybe only he will get water.

My scapes have already come and gone. I live
for scapes. They are the first thing I can
harvest. And I have to resist eating the straight,
especially if I have to see a customers the next day!

-T