Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I had real trouble with my onions and garlic last spring as the heat and rains hit as the plants were drying down. I will still be planting onions and garlic in the dirt but I might try some in the AP since I now have plastic up which will keep the rains from hitting the beds that I keep the plastic over come spring.

Will still be planting garlic and onions in the ground too.

A note on the elephant garlic. It isn't really garlic but actually a leek with a garlic flavor. Great for making roasted garlic! Often grows large single cloves instead of the smaller multi clove bulbs of normal garlic.

Some one said something about beans and tomatoes and wanting to plant garlic there. In companion planting guideds, apparently peas and beans don't do well being planted near onions and garlic.

We got some rain when my first bed was just short of harvest. I just lay a tarp on the ground over the crop - did a fine job.

Plant garlic in the winter, harvest during summer...(wet season sow and harvest in the dry season)
All they need is water early, then dry to finish.
They seem Ok in my AP system

aye but our climate here in central FL makes growing many things kinda tricky since the wet season is usually late spring through Mid Fall give or take a month or two on either side. Makes growing anything that needs to dry down late in growth during hot weather nearly impossible.

Anyway, last year I left plants out in the garden too long, next time I will bring stuff in to dry down in the garage and shed as putting a tarp over them on the ground would cook them badly that time of year here.

I had 20 or so garlic cloves in the cupboard that I'd got from a market ( organic , apparently ) , they sprouted so I planted them into the new AP system

its cycled but the pH started swining wildly ,
some of the garlic took off, some is doing nothing , but most of it got all mushy and started smelling like day-old steak

the garlic in my other ( stable ) system is doing pretty much nothing , and the onions are not doing much better

garlic in the dirt garden from the same source , planted at the same time , is going awesome .
Maybe too much moisture in AP for garlic , or maybe I just can't garden for spit

ahh but if a slow growing crop can sit in AP and have access to the minimal water it needs to survive, then it's going to use way less than having it in the ground where you have to keep adding water. My bromeliad did nothing (no leaves no nothing) for 6 months then burst into flower. If it was in dirt I would have had to water it every second day at least or it would have died.

So I think water efficiency increases with slower growing crops. Of course this varies, and garlic might be an exception to the rule (or bromeliads lol)

Hope this makes sense - what do you guys think?

whoops, I was replying to this


But I do agree with this

I agree with the low water use of garlic being able to do we ll in an AP system when it only gets water infrequently , but in my case Im better off having the garlic in the dirt and using my valuable AP growbed space for faster growing / nitrate eating plants

Fair call but you might be missing out on some companion planting.

+1 - - VB
When I started planting garlick - we always ran short until I had 5 plants going to seed. All of a sudden I had about 500 seeds. (We haven't run short since).
Yep... the seed stalk grows tall - ours grew to 60 - 80cm. Take seeds out of seed pod, keep cool/dry. Plant next season.
It can be hard to determine which is top or bottom of the seed - but never mind - they can turn themselves around!

Jaymie ...... your Elephant Garlick in your AP......... will it grow only March - Sep/Oct/Nov. or will it grow; and can it be harvested all year around?

Also ...... whoever grows Garlick in AP ...... are you growing it in the same conditions as all your other plants?
eg.: higher above water level - - in sand?

ryangus ....... I never worried much about favoured species. The garlick I planted came from several sources. I guess by now they have been cross pollinated.

I reckon if you got space for for garlick (or Bromeliads) and it will grow in AP - - then why not!
My AP is not ready yet ..... but I would plant garlick and silverbeet in soil rather than AP.
Maybe I'll change my mind once my AP is up and running!

heka

I thought that garlic form seed had to grow through two years.
This is just a random memory but would be the reason to grow from bulb.
Any one wish to comment.

I think you are probably right Nick - and in fact Heka said the same a bit back (I think).

I always grow from the cloves - and once you have a bit of a stock, there is no reason not to. Nothing like exponential growth of growing capacity. Each bulb will have a number of cloves of course (probably between 4 and 8 maybe (they tend to vary based on a number of factors), so you only need to save a relatively small % of your crop to be able to have the same number of plants the following year. Given that many of the bulbs last the full 12 months for eating anyway, if you gorw plenty, you will always have an excess for planting at the end of the year anyway.