The long and short of it

Saturday 28 July 2012

Like many other fair-weather plants – potatoes, courgettes and peas among them – garlic has been growing very poorly this year.

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Dave Allan

Your crop may have yellowing leaves, small heads and early signs of rot. The reason for this failure to thrive is almost not worth mentioning: the plants are drowning.

Roots need to absorb oxygen from gas-filled pores in the surrounding soil, but as the ground becomes waterlogged, the pores fill with water. Roots and soil micro-organisms then have precious little oxygen and can use up whatever's nearby within 24 hours. Switching back to peas, I stripped a row of early sugar peas a week or so ago and found virtually no root system on the plants. To rub salt into the wound, I scarcely had half the crop I would ordinarily expect.

I also noticed the pea vines were stunted and yellowing before they should. If the roots can't absorb enough oxygen then ethylene, a gas, is produced in the rest of the plant. Ethylene encourages fruits to ripen and plants to age gradually and die, so large amounts of it force waterlogged plants to die prematurely.While most garlic grown in Scotland is due to be harvested over the next week or so, timing depends on the variety. Garlic varieties are described as having either short or long dormancy, in reference to the length of time you can store the crop. "Shorts" are usually planted the previous autumn, lifted in early summer and stored for three to four months. "Longs" are planted in January or early February, will be ready soon and can be stored through winter.Gardeners in England often plant garlic in the autumn because the plants must be exposed to at least a month of temperatures below 10C to reduce the chances of the plants bolting, or running to seed too quickly, but it's not an issue here. The highest temperature between January and the middle of March this year was 10.2C, so it's safe to plant longs in late January.If you've been growing longs, you'll be following the tradition of lifting your garlic over the next fortnight. In his 17th-century gardening bestseller, Le Jardinier Francais, Nicolas de Bonnefons notes: "The time to bend over [the garlic], for fear of running to seed, is at the Feast of St Peter in June [the 29th] and the time to lift it from the Ground is the Feast of St Peter in August [the 2nd]."De Bonnefons's harvesting advice is sound: "When you have lifted the garlic, let them dry out on vacant Ground. Then, early in the morning, tie them together in dozens, using their own leaves and let them spend the day in the Sun. [Do this] before carrying them to a Storeroom in the Greenhouse, hanging them from the rafters to keep them dry."As with onions and shallots, our 17th-century expert recommends lifting garlic on a sunny August day when the bulbs' outer skins have been dried and ripened. Unfortunately, the summer of 2012 has made it hard to follow this advice. Waterlogged plants are stressed and have almost certainly been attacked by fungal spores. The outer skin and possibly some of the cloves may be soft and damaged. Whatever the state of the crop, the only solution is to salvage what you can.Even if it isn't sunny, choose a dry day for harvesting. Collect the crop, take it under shelter – a shed or a lean-to – and, if the bulbs are dry, tidy them up immediately. Hang the bulbs and foliage over a line of string. If the bulbs are damp, put them on the string for a few days. They will then be air-dried and can be cleaned up.The bulbs won't have dried and ripened properly this year, so you need to be much more meticulous than normal when preparing the crop for storage. Cleaning entails cutting off most of the roots and removing any dried earth from the base of the bulb. Peel away the dirty, discoloured outer skins. You should end up with a clean skin wrapped round the firm cloves. Store the crop by suspending individual plants along the string or bunch several together, making sure the bulbs don't touch each other. Alternatively, plait together to produce an attractive string. Lastly, store the plants in a cool, dry place, not in a warm, humid kitchen.A final point: if you find soft, fusty skin when cleaning a plant, don't store it. Keep it separate from any sound bulbs, remove rotting skin or cloves and use it as quickly as possible. This fresh garlic is a useful asset in the kitchen, so all is not lost. nVisit www.askorganic.co.uk. Email your gardening queries to da@askorganic.co.uk

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