"The festival has a policy stating that all vendors must test their product and it must be proven free of GBN in order to be able to sell there." Who performs the testing? Private labs? Does Minnesota have state-sponsored testing? I hope to see the USDA & state extension offices become more active in fighting GBN. It would be in everyone's best interest if that testing is made available & affordable to gardeners and collectors as well, since some of those are unwittingly spreading the organism through trades. I am no fan of Federal intervention in commerce, but since infected stock is being sold across state lines, this is a case where a USDA "GBN free" certification program should be initiated for all garlic sold as seed stock. "I have some Artichoke types but I generally shy away from softnecks because under my growing conditions most of those plants are weakly bolting and create bulbils in various locations - at the top of the the bulbs in the wrappers, just above the bulbs, halfway up the pseudostem, etc." While I have read of this behavior, mine have only rarely produced stem bulbils. I wish that was a more frequent occurrence, it would offer some hope of salvaging a variety, should GBN infect the bulb. It is the artichoke & other softneck garlics which are most at risk from the spread of GBN; my fear is that we could lose some heirloom softnecks completely before this infestation has been dealt with. "I too have noticed a general decline in size of what is being grown and offered out there. It was a goofy growing season in many parts of the U.S., wondering if that is the reason. I also suspect that a lot of bulb/clove stock is infected with viruses which can affect bulb quality and size, especially when combined with the stresses of a poor growing season. IMO people would be wise to break the chain and replace their entire stock by planting bulbils every five years or so, at least with types that produce bulbils. Not a complete solution but it is helpful." On that topic... correct me if I am wrong, Tom, but the use of bulbils as planting stock would only offer protection against GBN and other soil-borne organisms. Diseases tend to be systemic, and any part of the plant - bulbils included - would be infected. I have read comments from several garlic growers who believe that if they grow bulbils from stock infected with aster yellows, that the resultant crop would be free of the disease. It would be wonderful if that were true, but I doubt that would be an effective remedy. I do believe that hardneck garlic offered as seed stock (both commercially & through trades) should be more available in the form of bulbils. When I again offer garlic through SSE, I will make a statement explaining the threat of GBN, and encouraging more growers to offer bulbils. I will be doing so for all of my hardnecks. Spreading knowledge to other gardeners is key to getting a handle on GBN... my sincere thanks, Tom, for bringing this to our attention. It sure opened my eyes, especially as I begin to rebuild & expand my collection. I hope the "goofy season" is the reason for the predominance of small bulbs this year. Several of the growers that I obtained stock from ascribe to this theory, and I hope they are right. Looking back, I had several years with small bulbs, followed by years where bulbs grown from that smaller stock returned to their full size. Obviously, I hope that will happen with the stock I am planting now. It seems odd, though, to see this phenomenon occur on a national level. I don't necessarily suspect a virus, but that is a possibility... and if true, it might be yet another threat that is not being tested for. If there was one good thing about the aster yellows outbreak, it was that it generated awareness of just how fragile our garlic industry really is. Any vegetable which owes its continued existence to vegetative propagation is vulnerable to disease buildup... think Irish potatoes. " I focus instead on hardnecks, Rocamboles in particular. To me they are the best and are the focus of my attention (although I think most growers around here focus on growing Porcelains). Rokes are very winter-hardy plants. Their clove size, ease of peeling, flavor, and roasting attributes put them in high demand, even if they do not have the best storage attributes." Rocamboles are my favorite hardnecks as well. They tend to have larger bulbs than my porcelain garlics; one of them, "Special Idaho", had bulbs almost as large as my artichoke types. Additionally - and importantly - rocamboles also have especially large bulbils. Those of "Special Idaho" were often marble size. This means that it is realistic to propagate rocamboles from bulbils in a short time frame. I had been meaning to test that large-scale in 2012, but aster yellows put a halt to that. Sadfly, I have been unable to find sources for some of the rocamboles I lost... including "Special Idaho" and "Chrysalis Purple".

Hello, I just posted the following to another question and figured it may help you as well so I am coppying it here too. The gourds can be put it the garage, or just left outside on the vine all winter. They actually dry faster when left on the vine all winter. You can green clean too. The only thin you have to be worried about doing that is if you want seed for next year. If the seeds freeze they may not germinate. All you need to do there is take the gourd you want for seed into the garage and they should be just fine. Do be careful with the mold. My post below explains the mold and I'll put in a link to our web site too. We clean our gourds with a chore boy scubber. Don't be afraid to scub that gourd hard. You won't hurt the gourd. From looking at the pic, the top apears to have the tuff waxy skin on it, you may want to soak it for a bit. I can tell once you get all the skin off of it, it's going to be awesome! The shell is a nice colour under that skin. You can see it in patches. The shell of a gourd is just like wood in most cases. To clean the inside.. That can be easy, or it can be very hard, depending on the insides of the particular gourd. I have had some gourds that are nothing more than a thin layer that had nicely peeled itself away from the inside of the gourd. I have also had gourds that the inside a thick wall of white foamy stuff clued tight to the inside. My favorites are the ones that the insides just ball up around all the seeds. You get a seed ball that you just dumb in thrash. Then do some sanding to make it smooth. For the hard to get out insides, we use a wire, or sand paper brush thing with our drill. That takes it all out pretty fast. I too forgot about the paper bags. I like to use cut up pieces of fabric and decopouge them on the inside. My DH wrote a couple of booklets on gourds if anyone is interested you can download them in PDF format, we also have a gourd chart that can be downloaded. Just click the link below. All three are free. Also, gourds are wonderful canvas's given to us from God, but you have to be careful when working with them. Gourds as they dry grow mold on the surface skin. It may be white mold, green mold, black mold, or any other number of colors. You must always wear a resporator. Not one of those paper face mask either, you need one of those good gas mask looking resporators. The inside of the gourd can have some real nasty mold in it as well. There usualy is no mold inside, but it does happen. Regardless if there is mold or not, you still need the resporator as the stuff inside the gourd, as well as the dust from cutting and sanding on a gourd can make you deathly ill. I am not trying to scare anyone, but it is important to know the safety issues of gourds and exercise proper precautions. My husband and I have been crafting gourds for close to 15 years now, and believe me we found all this out the hard way! Hubby still has breathing problems from the gourd dust he breathed in a few years ago when he decided that he could sand a little spot on a gourd "Real fast" without his resporator! A good way to know if your resporator is a good one is if you can smell and taste the gourd dust as you breath in and out, then your resporator is not filtering everything out. Check out our gourd site, it has lots of really good info on it about gourds, mold, drying, cleaning, and crafting. Links to the gourd booklet, (Gourd reports) are on the left side of the page, along with links to the mold info, gourd charts and gourd report 2 Here is a link that might be useful: The Gourd Reserve

Beautiful!

Wow that is amazing. Sure wish I had access to a friend like that. We lost two of our apple trees last winter.