05/09/2023
The last few weeks on the farm have been super busy. We have been fertilizing and w**ding the garlic crop. Everything is growing nicely, and we are anticipating a great harvest this year.
At Red Tail Farms we raise of our crops and livestock with limited outside inputs. Our goal is to provide all the farm’s resources from the farm itself, other local farms, or trusted sustainable organic sources (until we can fully supply all our own needs).
This year the garlic was fertilized with a mixture of fish hydrolysate, liquid crab & lobster, liquid seaw**d & kelp, and liquid humate. These fertilizers provide different needs for the soil and the plants. Some may think we did this the hard way, but we essentially fertilized each plant individually with a homemade application unit using a transfer pump from a bulk mix tank. This method prevented wasted fertilizer and ensured all plants received an application.
After the fertilization we spent approx. 9 hours hand w**ding the garlic to allow the best conditions for the garlic to grow. Some growers remove the mulch from winter (turkey litter and alfalfa hay in our case), but we have determined it is better to keep the soil covered in the spring with varying temps. The mulch also remains in place as a great w**d barrier and continues to break down to add organic matter to the soil.
Next task on the farm is to harvest the garlic scapes that will be showing up in the next 1-2 weeks and continue into early June. We will have approximately 8,000-10,000 this year and would love to provide you with some. Scapes are only available in a 2–3-week window in places where there is a winter (45 days of less than 45 degrees).
