My Martin Heirloom's Pictures

18 years ago

Hi Folks & Martin,

I've posted pictures of my garlic on web, it can be viewed at the following link:

http://photos.yahoo.com/mcjsautio@rogers.com

What you will see is 2 inch bulbs, they are from a spring planting of bulbils. I cheated a bit, by starting the bulbils indoors in peat pots around the beginning of March. I figured this would give them a good jump in the garden and it certainly did. I used no fertilizer and the only thing I added to the soil in the garden was some composted manure. The garden was over-run with weeds once or twice this summer which may have slowed their growth a little.

Along with the Martin's Heirloom, I also planted 7 other varieties of garlic, none of them prospered as well as the martin's and most of them were planted from large cloves. I definitely think that the martin's thrives in this zone and I plan on only planting martin's this year, in hopes that I can share with other gardeners in my area.

Overall I am pretty happy with the success of this season. Enjoy the pics.

later folks,

Matti

P.S/By the way, this is the first time I've posted pictures at this link...if you can't access the pictures, please let me know.

Sort by:Oldest

Comments (6)

UncleJohn
18 years ago
The links worked fine, but I only see thumbnails, not full images.
paquebot
18 years ago
Although the pictures are a bit small, there are good enough for me to be happy with the results. I see nice divided garlic bulbs from a spring planting of bulbils. Good enough for me!

The method of starting the bulbils early was mentioned on a site that I scanned through a week or so ago. It was also mentioned that some will produce in a single season and others will take much longer depending upon the size.

Now all I have to do is sort out what I have for cloves and bulbils and figure out how to distribute them. I don't have the ground to grow a lot of them out so I may as well shift them all around. We've got them in a few places in the US and Canada as well as Denmark. If I lose them for any reason after all these years, they are safe elsewhere!

Martin
Related Discussions
Heirloom/Heritage/Cider Apple Pictures
Q
Comments (2)
Arkansas Black This post was edited by johnthecook on Mon, Nov 3, 14 at 13:47
...See More
Martin's Heirloom Garlic-What's the history?
Q
Comments (10)
Sue, it's been covered a number of times since the Allium Forum was created. But since it's still something with just a very small grower base, perhaps it's time to cover it again. I first bought it in 1982 or 1983 from Jung's Seed Co. It was the first and last time that I saw it. It was simply listed as "Topset Garlic", or something similar, and sold only as bulbils. Upon getting them home and reading the planting instructions, they were to be planted 4 to 5 inches deep. Whoops, that can't be right! I contacted Jung's to point out the error and it was due to failure to convert metric to English. It was supposed to be 4cm to 5cm! Therefore, anyone who bought a packet, and planted according to instructions, got nothing in return. Now forward 20+ years and I've been growing it ever since. Thus far, nobody can find out what it originally was named or if it were merely a local landrace from somewhere. Information on where Jung's obtained it went up in smoke several years ago. Thus it's sort of a mystery as well. It's a hardneck variety, possibly a German porcelain type, and with rather large bulbils. An old Bavarian friend told me that they used to use those large bulbils in cooking and making stock. Those bulbils will produce normal divided bulbs in a single season, and that's how we planted them for many years. Some years, we got a lot of small bulbs and other years had larger ones and always from bulbils. In recent years, we began planting back cloves instead and got really big bulbs. (Go back and read other threads about growing and harvest results for it.) Overall, it's unlike any other garlic that I've grown. It may be close to Schumacher which is another old heirloom from around this area. Both have similar growth habits except that Schumacher has more red on the clove skins. I've yet to see if Schumacher will do when grown from bulbils but they are about the same size. I've completed planting the Martin's today and have at least 50 cloves and 100 bulbils left yet. In my Exchanges offer, I failed to mention that the 10 cloves come with 20 bulbils. Anyone who has received it now are being trusted to do a mass grow out of at least 30 specimens. 30 plants, allowed to produce bulbils, can be enough to support a major business in a few years! Martin
...See More
Heirloom fig - pictures
Q
Comments (24)
Elder, my apologies. This is really difficult. I'm tempted to take back wat I said above... is it possible that both a mulberry and a fig with mulberry like leaves are growing in the same place? You'll notice in the lower picture that some of the leaves look nothing like the others. They are more mitten shaped. This is quite typical of mulberries, to have varying leaf shape on one plant. And it is indeed hard to be sure that the leaves are coming from the fig branches. I'm sure there is a fig in there somewhere... but I just don't know. I still think the characteristics of the leaves are somewhat un-mulberry-like...
...See More
My Controller\Purple Martin Guardian
Q
Comments (2)
Sounds and looks like a neat place. I have never been birding outside the United States but that looks neat. Thanks for the tip. I wonder if there are starlings there?? Probably darn it grin..suckers have spread all over the globe now it seems except like maybe Antarctica or the far north. I wish they would all go there from the United States anyway and maybe freeze solid before they realized they went too far south. My trap had another one in it this very morning and it was great to see him behind bars as I sipped my morning coffee while watching my now 20 martins all over the gourds smile...Mike
...See More
UncleJohn
18 years ago
Martin, I would be happy to trade in addition to providing a Granite State home for MH. If space is really that tight in your garden, perhaps I can grow the trade stock for you! I am intrigued by the descriptions and accolades, and look forward to being part of the family!
paquebot
18 years ago
You know, John and all, I grew that variety all by itself for probably 15 years before adding several more. Usually aimed for 25-30 bulbs to last the year. Then I started adding all of those other "better" varieties until there was little room left for my old favorite. If you were here at the beginning of this forum, you'd know how close it was to being lost as I almost didn't have any here for one year. We were lucky that my son was still growing it and was able to get some back to grow again.

It's taken some thinking tonight as to where in H--- I'm going with this garlic game. Well, I happen to like my old one and it was one of the best in this dry year. There's going to be a "fire sale" shortly but it won't be for Martin's Topsetter, it will be for anything else that didn't measure up this year. Other than my old one, everything else is available somewhere. Therefore, the decision was made tonight to plant the main garlic bed at least 75% Martin's.

Did I just hear a big moan from the rest of you? Don't worry. I think that I had 27 bulbs at harvest time. I figure that it's going to use up about 10 bulbs to handle that project. Whatever is left will be strictly for distribution here on GW. I'd prefer that it go to serious growers who will be able to devote a permanent spot for it rather than just growing it for the kitchen. As near as we can tell, the original source may even be extinct or nearly so. There's no commercial variety exactly like it and only a few SSE varieties may be close. I probably should not have to worry as Matti and Bill have got it and both are serious about growing it. Now we can let a lot more into the game. So, that's where we are as of tonight.

Martin
pocketsquirrel69
Original Author
18 years ago
Hello Martin and folks,
Just to let you know, all but one bulb will be going back into the garden this fall. One bulb got damaged in harvesting so... off to the kitchen with it. I've only used one clove of it so far and was quite impressed with the flavor. My plan is to build up the number of bulbs as quickly as i can so that i can spread it around to 4 other garlic heads up here. They harvested less than 30% of their normal harvest and all but lost some varieties. They all looked in envy at my tall green garlic..... hehe.

till the next posting,

Matti
paquebot
18 years ago
There now is an offer in the Exchanges portion of this Allium Forum. 10 cloves and 20 bulbils for as long as they last. That should give a good comparison for planting cloves and bulbils at the same time.

Martin

My Martin Heirloom's Pictures

Comments (6)

UncleJohn

paquebot

Related Discussions

UncleJohn

paquebot

pocketsquirrel69
Original Author

paquebot

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US

My Martin Heirloom's Pictures

Comments (6)

UncleJohn

paquebot

Related Discussions

UncleJohn

paquebot

pocketsquirrel69Original Author

paquebot

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US

pocketsquirrel69
Original Author