Pete Podurgiel

Curious to know if anyone has seen this before. About 10-20% of my harvest from past July 2025 had garlic bulbs that were 'burst' or split open.  The plants appeared to be in good health, the cloves taste fine and the bulbs seem to be storing well.  

This most recent planting were cloves taken from bulbs selected from last year's harvest (2024), which in turn had been from stock purchased and planted in 2023. I don't recall this happening with the previous harvests.

My soil is slightly acidic, well-drained and I rotate my planting areas yearly. We have been having pretty extreme droughts these last 2-3 years. Wondering if inconsistent watering might have something to do with it?

For better or worse, scanners are becoming somewhat obsolete. Many people use their cellphones to take pictures of documents instead.

Keep an eye on Craigslist, you might find someone giving one way (or maybe find a cheap used one on Ebay).
If you happen to go that route, be sure it comes with the software.

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None, nada, zilch, zero.   Been another droughty year here, too. Not sure if that played into it.  I don't recall seeing any last year, maybe one or two.
Depressingly few butterflies as well, despite having plenty of forage for them.

Saw a preying mantis yesterday and made me think about walking-stick bugs. It's probably been a decade or more since I've seen one of those around.

Hi Mike,

Sounds lke a good plan.  My raspberries and strawberries absolutly love woodchips, and so do my winecaps (king stropharia).  I think they have the potential to make for a nice guild.

Not so sure about adding oysters to the mix.  I grow them on logs, but never tried to do them "in the ground".  Winecaps are relatively easy to establish and produce in abundance. Seeing as you are limited in terms of woodchips, I woud recommend establishing the winecaps first so they dominate the new beds and are not in direct competition with other varieties.  Can you do the oysters on logs, perhaps?

I have no experience with nameko or enokitake, so I won't comment on those.

Interested to hear back on how it all works out for you - cheers!

Here's a few pics of my portable stands.  They're fashioned from scrap 2x4's using 1/4 x 5" lag screws to secure the assembly together.

They are pretty easy to make.  Simply clamp the two boards together and predrill a pilot hole though them.  Separate them and insert the copper pipe (I used 3/4" diameter about 2" in length), then drive the lag bolt through the pilot holes and your done,  They work better in pairs and can also be used between stacked pallets to provide a larger footprint, if desired.  This is the setup i envision for my lettuce grow bags.

Nancy Reading wrote:I think this is what I need for my seedling table....

I'm thinking the same about using them to protect my lettuce plants.  I've made portable stands with copper legs that I'm using to protect for my totems. I need to make more for use under grow bags.  Nothing worse than finding a half-dissolved slug in my salad.  Gag!

Jay Angler wrote:
So from what you've found is that using mushrooms a slug bait to provide slugs for my ducks may be a viable approach?

Do you find that you need to clean the copper periodically for it to keep working, or does it still work when oxidized?

HA - yes, I suppose you could use mushrooms to lure in the slugs for your ducks.   As far as cleaning the copper goes, nope, haven't had to do it yet. But that's something I'm keeping an eye on.

As long as they're not presenting a danger to anyone, I'd leave them be.   They do get awfully ornery this time of year though, so it's good to give them a wide berth if they're near any doorways or sidewalks.  Things like weedwackers, lawn mowers or leaf blowers can be enough to set them off, if too close. Asssuming you're up north, they'll "give up the ghost" once we start having hard frosts.