three garlic cloves
Photo by Mike Kenneally on Unsplash

By Kim Porcupine | For The Rose Cityian/Rose City Live

The end of gardening season is approaching but don’t put away your hoe and gardening gloves just yet. The best time to plant garlic is now through November.

Garlic roots develop in the fall and winter, and by early spring they can support the rapid leaf growth that is necessary to form large bulbs, said Chip Bubbles, a horticulturist with The State University’s Extension Service.

What type of garlic should you plant? Some gardeners like to grow top-setting garlic, also called hardneck. Common hardneck types include Korean, Dujanski, Siberian, Music, Chesnock Red, German Red and Spanish Roja. These varieties produce tiny bulblets at the end of a tall flowering stalk in addition to a fat underground bulb of cloves.

Softneck garlic, on the other hand, rarely produces floral stems and tends to grow bigger bulbs because energy isn’t diverted to top-set bulblets. Softneck varieties include Silverskin, Inchelium Red, California Early and California Late.

Some enthusiasts say hardneck garlic has a richer, more pungent flavor than non-flowering types, but not all gardeners agree, Bubbles said. Both can be harvested in early spring like green onions and sautéed as a side dish. Or you can allow them to mature until mid-July when they become a bulb with cloves.

Another type, elephant garlic, is actually a type of leek that produces large, mild-tasting cloves – usually fewer per bulb than the true garlics.

Bubbles offers the following tips for growing garlic:

  • Lime the soil if you haven’t done so recently. Before planting cloves, work a couple tablespoons of 5-10-10 complete fertilizer, bone meal or fish meal into the soil several inches below where the base of the garlic will rest. Select healthy large clovers, free of disease. The larger the clove, the bigger the bulb you will get the following summer.
  • Plant the garlic in full sun in well-drained soil. A sandy, clay loam is best. In heavier soil, plant it in raised beds (framed or just soil hilled up) that are two to three feet wide and at least 10 to 12 inches tall. Garlic has well-developed root systems that may grow more than three feet deep in well-drained soil. Plant cloves root side down, 2 inches deep and 2 to 4 inches apart in rows spaced 10 to 14 inches apart. Space elephant garlic cloves about 6 inches apart. Garlic can be lightly mulched to improve soil structure and reduce weeds. A single 10-foot row should yield about five pounds of the fragrant bulbs.
  • Fertilize garlic in the early spring by side dressing or broadcasting with blood meal, pelleted chicken manure or a synthetic source of nitrogen. Just before the bulbs begin to swell in response to lengthening daylight (usually early May), fertilize lightly one more time. Weed garlic well, as it can’t stand much competition. Garlic is rarely damaged by insects. Most years, you won’t need to water unless your soil is very sandy. If May and June are very dry, irrigate to a depth of two feet every eight to 10 days. As mid-June approaches, taper off the watering.
  • Remove the floral stems as they emerge in May or early June from hardneck varieties to increase bulb size. Small stems can be eaten like asparagus, but they get more fibrous and less edible as they mature. Don’t wait for the leaves to start dying to check for maturity. Sometimes garlic bulbs will be ready to harvest when the leaves are still green. The best way to know is to pull one up and cut it open crosswise. Start checking for mature cloves about late June. Harvest garlic when the head is divided into plump cloves and the skin covering the outside of the bulbs is thick, dry and papery. If left in the ground too long, the bulbs sometimes split apart. The skin may also split, exposing the cloves and causing them not to store well.
  • Dig, and then dry the mature bulbs in a shady, warm, dry and well-ventilated area for a few days. Then remove the tops and roots. Brush dirt off the bulbs. To braid garlic together, harvest it a bit earlier while leaves are green and supple.
  • Avoid bruising the garlic, as it will not store well. Store bulbs in a dark, dry and well-ventilated place. Protect from high humidity and freezing. Do not store garlic in the refrigerator because cool temperatures combined with moisture stimulate sprouting. Properly stored garlic should last until the next crop is harvested the following summer.

brown wooden love is lover decor
Photo by Shamia Casiano on Pexels.com

Rose City. — Home buyers in the state will no longer be able to submit “buyer love letters” with their offers in an attempt to sway sellers to accept their offer over others. The Governor signed House Bill 2550 in June, which directs seller’s agents to reject direct communications from buyer to seller, outside the scope of a traditional offer. 

Buyers will often include personal, heartfelt letters to sellers with their offers, telling them how much they love a home, how they can envision their family growing there, or that they see themselves hosting holiday dinners in the kitchen. The problem lies in that those letters could reveal personal information about the buyers that could lead to potential discrimination. Sellers aren’t allowed to discriminate based on protected status, such as race, gender, religion or family makeup, and a letter could open the door to discrimination, or even just the perception of it. 

“The National Association of Realtors has actually advised against them, mainly because it rides a line of being perceived as violating fair housing rules or regulations,” said Michael Knight, CEO of More Realty. 

Last year, the National Association of Realtors put out guidance discouraging agents from accepting love letters from buyers, but the practice remains popular nationwide.

“An example—when a letter comes in, if it describes the family situation or circumstances, whatever that may be, or indicates or gives a clue to a religious or any other protected class, there’s always the risk that a seller could be accused of making a decision based upon inappropriate factors,” Knighton said.  

Rose City is the first city to make it illegal. The bill’s chief sponsor, Rep. Mark Weekly (D-Clackamas), is a real estate agent. 

The sale should come down solely to the terms and conditions of your offer, Knighton said. He acknowledged it’s a tough market for buyers right now, but said love letters rarely tip the scales. 

“You really have to put your best foot forward, make it a clean offer as possible,” he said. “The truth is, this is a incredibly strong seller’s market. There’s 0.7 months of inventory on the market. The more months of inventory, the closer you get to a buyer’s market, but right now it’s such a strong sellers market that all the buyers can do is work hard and do their best to put their best foot forward in the offer.”

Earthworms on a persons hand
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Jumping Jehoshaphat!

An invasive worm species that can leap a foot into the air is spreading its way across the U.S.

SFGATE.com reports how the species—which first arrived in the soil of potted plants back in the early 20th century—goes by a few other names such as the “Alabama jumpers” and “Jersey wrigglers,” but is officially called Asian jumping worms because of their home continent and their aforementioned ability to jump the full length of a ruler.

As if the image of a worm jumping off the ground wasn’t jarring enough, the same SFGATE.com article details how Asian jumping worms can also “thrash violently like a rattlesnake when handled,” and additionally have the ability to clone themselves.

On top of that, they’ve managed to end up in California after being spotted throughout the East Coast—far from their native soil in Japan and the Korean Peninsula—confirming their presence in both coasts of the country and inspiring worry in a number of scientists.

And this worry does in part stem from the way these guys can move: According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service official website, all this jumping Asian jumping worms do works up a voracious appetite, causing them to eat pretty much everything around them without ever being fully satisfied, their ravenous ways harming the indigenous species in the environment around them.

Specifically, the Forest Service website highlights how the earthworm species tends to eat tiny pieces of fallen leaves that are key in making up the top layer of forest soil, preventing the growth of plants and even robbing certain animals of their homes.

“Soil is the foundation of life—and Asian jumping worms change It,” explains Mac Callahan, a Forest Service researcher who specializes in soil. “In fact, earthworms can have such a huge impact that they’re able to actually reengineer the ecosystems around them”

NorthventralPA.com continues to report how the key to mitigating the spread of Asian jumping worms is to focus on destroying their cocoons much in the same way it’s recommended to destroy the eggs of everyone’s favorite, the spotted lanternfly.

Further research on how to more effectively tackle the spread of the species is currently being conducted.