Discussion: Fall sets

I found fall onion sets at Lowes last year! They were with the other bulbs - tulips and such. They even had both "White" and "Yellow."

By the way, all their tulip bulbs went on sale (half price) the week before Thanksgiving, so if you can wait that long and the ground isn't frozen its a great deal. Lowes and Home Depot both put them on sale that week. The ones I planted T-day weekend came up fine this spring.

Are you guys coming down to the DVOA French Creek A-meet? I started three pots (er, coffee cans) of Columbine for you to attract those leaf miners next spring. The plants are small - started in July, still green now - but I think they're established well enough to come back large in the spring and hopefully even bloom. If not I can find someone else to send them back with. Maybe George and Lynn. Joe and Pavi?

Ground won't be frozen hard for weeks, perhaps Xmas. We still have lots growing and barely started to put in the winter rye.

We'll be at French Creek.

That's really nice of you Eddie, thanks! I would very much like to eat some spinach next year, so it's definitely worth a try along with some floating row covers. I'm not coming down to French Creek - the money vs time ratio is not working out too well at the moment thanks to totally awesome things like Yellowstone and going home/visa renewing for Thanksgiving. I'm sure George and Lyn would pick them up for me if they're going.

Winter rye? Anything else you can suggest to over winter George, other than onions and garlic?

I was hoping to just sprout some Trader Joe's garlic. A few bulbs sprouted no problem in early summer, but I think they must have a different supplier now who treats them, because they haven't sprouted at all. Hoping to buy some garlic too as a result!

I'm planning to put in garlic next weekend. e-mail me a postal address and I'll drop you a few cloves. Lowes had some last year too. It was cheap relative to the seed houses, but variety unknown. I have mostly Music, with some Rojas and Bavarian Purple. The Music produces huge bulbs, so I've been selecting for it unintentionally just by planting the biggest cloves. Big cloves -> big plants and big bulbs the next year.

I have put winter rye in forever as a cover crop and turn it in in spring. Great soil now. Don't bother with onions and too generic. Attempts with garlic failed though this year got a clump from the Garlic Farm, just up the road, and put those cloves in a corner by the sorrel on Monday. Will see how they do. Lyn uses a lot of both onions and garlic so might be useful if it works.

Becky the farm stand on Route 17 has wonderful garlic. It probably sprouts, but I don't know, we've never had a bulb last long enough to find out.

Ooooh good shout! Now I just need to find out if I have to run a training camp this weekend or not, perhaps I can make it out there. I'm sure farm stand garlic will sprout.