These bulbs have woken up and are putting out lots of growth. We needed to add fertilizers to keep them well fed, and we have had a very dry April so we are using that well to irrigate. Feels good using solar power to supply the well pump and irrigate the fields. I got another soil health test done in late March and the results came back suggesting I add some nitrogen, potassium, zinc and phosphorus. So found what we needed and got to applying it to the fields.
Next up is waiting for the scapes to emerge, will cut them off as soon as its time to help the bulbs get bigger.
One of my new purchases for the farm is this reel watering system.
It is designed for a 1.5" water inlet. But you can also connect a normal 3/4" water hose to it, though for the best flow you want to use the bigger hose.
It came with a 15 foot hose, its a good start but will need a longer one.
The fields before we added the fertilizer and wood chips.
You can see the rows pretty well.
The water reel has a battery compartment. But I have yet to find one that fits. So I wired up a normal battery to it and set it beside for operation.
The water reel shoots a pretty far line of water as it turns 360 degrees.
While the water reel is running, we prepare the fertilizer.
The water reel runs all day, slowly retracting the hose using that car battery and motor.
We mixed all the fertilizer in a wheel barrow.
The yellow leaves is from last year, all of the new leaves look really good.
We got the well house all connected. A little leaky but I will add some teflon tape and tighten it all up.
Eventually the water reel runs enough for us to start working behind it and applying fertilizer. We want the ground damp when we apply it and then follow up with another watering to help it get asorbed into the ground. We also add wood chips on top to stop any flooding from washing away the granular fertilizer.
Adding fertilizer to a whole acre was a lot of work. Took most of a whole day to complete.
Mulch is added with the tractor down to rows, carefully not running any of the garlic over.
You can see the mulch being dropped from the bucket.
The next day we move the water reel over and hook up a longer hose. With both hoses now we have around 65 feet.
We pull out the water reel carriage with the tractor.
The reel holds a few hundred feet of hose.
Will need to find a proper battery for it soon. Lugging that full size battery around is a pain.
The hose is nearly fully stretched out. Then unhooked from the tractor.
As the day is coming to a close, the sunlight really shows the happy green garlic. With a fresh watering and feeding they seem really happy right now.
