Dont hold your breath....
 

From ABC Website....
"Australian Garlic Producers says garlic farming is not as easy as it seems.

"It's the unforgiving crop and if you don't do everything at the right
time when it's due it will come and bite you at the end," he said.

"I think it is one of the hardest crops you can grow in the world."

Mr Diamantopolous, whose company is backed by former Timbercorp chief
executive Robert Hance, says he first got into growing garlic in the
early 1990s, with mixed success. (J& T Gunns of Pulp mill fame)

He and other garlic growers say the main impediment to increasing the
amount of garlic grown in Australia is the lack of availability of
healthy, virus-free seed stock.

Mr Diamantopolous imported his motherstock seed from France.

Roger Schmitke grows garlic as a seed crop on his property in the South
Australian Riverland.

He speaks on behalf of the small, volunteer-based Australian Garlic
Industry Association.

"If you grow a pumpkin you put in one little seed and get many, many
kilos of pumpkin back," he said.

"But with garlic you've got to have one clove, and one clove if you are
a good grower will bring back 15 or 16 times what you put in."

He says garlic has been good to him. For 20 years, he and his family
have lived off less than two hectares of garlic crop."

Anyone agree that garlic is hard to grow?
I put mine in WELL before the middle of winter, and feel the middle of
winter isnt the time to put these in.

Dont hold your breath....
 

On Sat, 12 Jun 2010 10:28:21 +0000, PC wrote:


Anyone agree that garlic is hard to grow? I put mine in WELL before the
middle of winter, and feel the middle of winter isnt the time to put
these in.

Depends on location, climate, aspect, etc.

Now, if you were a garlic grower, would you honestly tell everyone that
it was easy pease to grow?
It is bad enough now with imports flooding the market at certain times.
and that probably explains why he might plant now (post January glut
harvest?)

Dont hold your breath....
 

On 13/06/2010 11:43 AM, terryc wrote:
On Sat, 12 Jun 2010 10:28:21 +0000, PC wrote:


Anyone agree that garlic is hard to grow? I put mine in WELL before the
middle of winter, and feel the middle of winter isnt the time to put
these in.

Depends on location, climate, aspect, etc.

Now, if you were a garlic grower, would you honestly tell everyone that
it was easy pease to grow?
It is bad enough now with imports flooding the market at certain times.
and that probably explains why he might plant now (post January glut
harvest?)

That's my vein of thinking, especially it was a J&T Gunns exec who
finances things.
Theyre having a tough time, because of their own stupidity.
The company may end up in overseas hands due to shares drop and
inability to raise finance for their pulp mill.
Ruining the ecology. Refusing to stop doing it. Backlash is no
surprise....No wonder Turnbull is looking for alternative industries,
like carbon credits.... Thats even worse. Money for nothing.
As far as my garlic goes, its growing well..So far...

Dont hold your breath....
 

"PC" wrote in message
...
From ABC Website....
"Australian Garlic Producers says garlic farming is not as easy as it
seems.

snip

Anyone agree that garlic is hard to grow?
I put mine in WELL before the middle of winter, and feel the middle of
winter isnt the time to put these in.

it's not - they should go in in about february, so they can get growing well
before winter hits.

i don't think it's hard to grow at all - it will put up with a wide
temperature range (including extreme frost), & except for weeding (which you
don't have to do much of if you just mulch it very thickly when you plant
it) you don't need to do anything to it until it's finished growing. even
the processing is pretty basic - the only problem with it is the smell! even
size does not matter. if your heads come out a bit small in the end it
doesn't matter.

you can lose most or all of a crop to botrytis rot though - but then, you
can lose any crop to some pest or disease - it's less likely with garlic ime
as it has so few.
kylie

Dont hold your breath....
 

PC writes:
From ABC Website....
"Australian Garlic Producers says garlic farming is not as easy as it seems.

Our authority on growing garlic as a commercial enterprise is Len. If Len
doesn't rise to your bait, I believe we can conclude that growing garlic
is dead easy and as lucrative as having your own gold mine, and he wants
to keep it under his hat. :-))
--
John Savage (my news address is not valid for email)

Dont hold your breath....
 

On 18/06/2010 11:57 AM, John Savage wrote:
writes:
From ABC Website....
"Australian Garlic Producers says garlic farming is not as easy as it seems.

Our authority on growing garlic as a commercial enterprise is Len. If Len
doesn't rise to your bait, I believe we can conclude that growing garlic
is dead easy and as lucrative as having your own gold mine, and he wants
to keep it under his hat. :-))
Len wearsa hat?
Nooaaw, thats a straw bale he wears over his head...
Much more ecologically sound...