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Hi All,

Planted out my Garlic about a month ago,as usual I planted Vayo. I had also intended to plant out Bella Italiano, I only got 4 bulbs worth saving from last seasons disaster with white rot, but they tasted so good that I had hoped to grow them again. Unfortunately in my order I was sent a substitute, apparently the Bella Italino had a very poor crop!!.

I eat my Garlic raw and always have done with my food as it is the only way of receiving the best of the medicinal virtues of Garlic. The true medicinal virtues of garlic dissipate within 15 to 20 minutes of having been crushed. What is left is the digestive. and to a much lesser extent the cardio vascular virtues of this wonderful herb.

I am cultivating them on a patch of soil which I hope has not been infected by White rot, but only time will tell!! As usual I use a bulb planter to plant my cloves, this permits me to add inoculated charcoal and compost under the clove where it is most needed. I also sprayed each individual clove and hole with neat EM's to ensure that the VAM's are in an environment best suited to their well being, as in a regenerative soil.

One of my 80 litre sealed bins has been filled with charcoal inoculated and sealed to over winter. Now as I only have two bins the next lot of rendered down charcoal was bagged in plastic liners ready for inoculation. As always I wear a face mask when rendering down and adding charcoal to the bins this is an essential piece of kit for your well being!!! I also wear safety goggles for similar reasons, although charcoal is the most important ingredient of TP we must take care to protect ourselves !!!

Now the inoculated charcoal I have used for my garlic is last seasons batch. I am therefore not expecting the results for the inoculated harvest to be much more than 30 to 35% above normal planting. This was about the range for alliums in last season experiment. However I have decided next season to change the source of VAM's in order to see if the more abundant range of VAM's will have a greater affinity with alliums If such is the case then I may post it on this site.

I am still scouring the internet for sources of other microorganisms which may be useful to this quest. This primarily is because there is, as I have come to understand, a unity of purpose within the world of good microorganisms. Their role is to preserve the balance within Mother nature, God bless EM's!!!!!

This was brought home to me when I treated a pond in a park with EM's and saw life return to its waters which were toxic. It is what these microorganisms do if we work with them, we need to realise that we are not the sharpest tool in the box!!!! As I have said before these life forms were here billions of years before us, and will still be here when we are gone, to clean up the mess which we modern humans have left!!!

PS:- I also noticed that The Organic Gardening Catalogue are selling "Carbon Gold Growchar at £9.95 for 2.5kg. Obviously they don't say what is in it, but at that price I would expect to find some gold!!! The only thing that I pay for at the moment is the charcoal and VAM's, all of the nutrients come from my plot and my kitchen.

PPS:- This is a very interesting site which goes into great detail on the numerous types of garlic and how they are categorised, well worth a read. Gourmet Garlic Gardens - A Garlic Information Center and Boutique

The mind is like a parachute its totally useless unless its open

Uriel