Crop rotation is key to limiting damage from allium leaf miners to garlic. Combining this with row covers in the early spring will keep the females from laying their eggs in the garlic. Additional information can be found at extension.psu.edu/preventing-allium-leafminer-in-garlic-plantings

The sawdust may be too fine of texture to be used as a mulch. Arborist woodchips work well as a mulch, because they are coarser textured which allows good water and air flow in to the soil. They will not mat down like other shredded wood mulches. Pine bark often is larger in size, but bark has a waxy coating that repels water so there is a chance the mulch layer will impede water flow into the soil underneath. A good mulch in this situation is pine needle mulch. It will not mat down and allows good water and airflow into the soil. In Illinois pine needle mulch can be hard to come by, which is why I turn to arborist woodchips, a low-cost alternative.

@@ILExtensionHKMW Thank you very much !!!

Here are a few that you can check out. Illinois Local Foods has a recorded webinar called Growing Great Blackberries kzbin.info/www/bejne/pGTNpGytlJJkeqM Illinois Extension has some older, but relevant information on raspberries web.extension.illinois.edu/raspberries/varieties.cfm University of Minnesota has a bit more updated information extension.umn.edu/fruit/growing-raspberries-home-garden

Watering garlic is dependent on your climate and soil. In Central Illinois we often have ample rain to meet the needs of garlic. Even in a raised bed I have not irrigated garlic and it has grown well. However, one recommended practice is garlic can receive an inch of irrigation (or rainfall) per week as the bulb begins to size up in June. As the bulb matures it is recommended to stop supplemental watering as the dry conditions promote maturing for harvest and keeping the soil too wet may encourage disease. Additionally, if your raised bed soil is very well-drained, if you live in an arid climate, or your soil is very sandy then perhaps supplemental irrigation would be needed.

That's what cooking is for, as the presenter mentioned.

There are a lot of products that seem to promote potassium as a means for improved flowering. If a plant is deficient in potassium growth will be stunted and all means of its lifecycle will be affected including flowering. It is misleading to say potassium will give you more flowers than normal, when applying it you are improving overall growth and development. In Illinois soils, potassium deficiency is uncommon and often these products are overapplied. More information on potassium's role in plants: extension.umn.edu/phosphorus-and-potassium/potassium-crop-production

By doing annual maintenance pruning in late winter, you should be able to remove the older, less productive canes each year and open up the canopy of the bush. This will allow more light penetration into the base of the plant and promote new cane or shoot growth. Also, providing a sufficient amount of fertilizer each year will help, as well as amble soil moisture throughout the growing season.

Thank you

Earliblue is the earliest ripening variety that would be suited for zone 6. It typically ripens during the first week of June, with harvest lasting about 3 weeks.

@@bronwynaly9218 What type of blueberries would you recommend on a new farm. I am in northern mexico. We are mexicos largest apple growing zone. At 6500 feet altitude. We get 800 to 1100 chill hours. I would be planning to do it in coco fibre bags to avoid alkaline soils

The best time to plant garlic is six to eight weeks before the ground is expected to freeze. Garlic can be planted in the spring; however, if this is done the cloves should be stored in a refrigerator for at least eight weeks prior to planting. This will ensure they have been properly chilled. While you can get good yields from spring-planted garlic they tend to not yield as reliably as fall-planted garlic.

While on mesonutrients, Calcium and Magnesium are problems in my area of the UK where it's very rainy, there is granitic bedrock and the mains water has very low mineral content. Fertilisers have to be marketed to the broadest customer base, so given many are on alkaline or chalky soils magnesium and calcium aren't included in standard compound fertilisers. The fertiliser industry has caught up with reduced S deposits in soils and there are complex fertilisers with S (and TEs).

Unfortunately Kyle Cecil is no longer with Illinois Extension. You can find the nearest Local Foods and Small Farms Educator by visiting extension.illinois.edu/global/staff then filter the list by team on the left to Local Foods/Small Farms.

/a sad

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