Growing Garlic

[tim armstrong]

This has probably been done before, but is there any money to be made from growing garlic, and/or exporting it? The Thai varieties seem to me to be not so pungent as those in other countries, and are a pleasure to use in cooking, and I 'm always looking for something that isn't too labour intensive or water dependent to grow. Advice appreciated.

[DerkMR]

User dancealot had some pictures and informations which - if I remember correctly - showed a field from his neighbors planting garlic and he documented the cycle.

For me it seemed interesting so if I would have continued to rent my old farm I would have gone for 1-2 rai of garlic!

May be we can use this as a start of a garlic culture thread to make it easy to find the information.

Bye,

Derk

[tim armstrong]

Thanks Derk, I'll follow up Dancealot's info. Yes I hope it gets some feedback, as it seems to be a relatively easy plant to grow. Maybe the marketing is an issue, but let's see.

[slapout]

The northern area of Thailand ()cool winter months) used to supply most of the garlic consumed by the Thai; as well as export (cash crop) . Price was around 25 to 30 baht/kilo dried, sold to middlemen, thus it was a popular winter crop for the farmers as they had the rice in bin, they could have garlic for consumption and sell the rest for spending money.

Then a agreement/deal was reached to allow Chinese garlic to come in with no restriction, price dropped to a range of 5 to 11 baht a kilo via middlemen.and many farmers went to any potential money crop other than garlic.Thai garlic is sweeter/milder than a lot of garlic encountered and the price swing has peaked a little higher in the past few years Its like any other farm product in Thailand, to sell locally you have to compete with your neighbors who raise the same crop, hold enough for personal use and sell the rest. You go with middleman wholesale price or retain price at local markets.

One note you do need a drying shed to hang and dry for top price. Most farmers budgeted for buying young plants for planting as garlic held over for this purpose required lots of labor, area and oft times was not successful.

[David48]

Dancealot's a mate of mine, and a good bloke ... I'll tap him on the shoulder.

[krisb]

Shhh...He's asleep!

[tim armstrong]

Thanks very much for the info Slapout, I had a feeling there may be a middle man element involved. Not a big return for the effort either it seems.

The last time I cam up with an idea for 'easy farming' was in Oz some years ago. I decided that saffron was the way to go - most valuable crop in the world etc., Anyway i went to the local Ag. research station to ask their advice. They smiled and asked me if I knew how it was harvested. Apparently you have to pluck the two stamens from each flower - by hand. There are about a million flowers to an acre, and one good windstorm can wipe them out. Oh well, back to the drawing board.

[Dancealot]

I just read this and my first thought on the marketing side of garlic is the Chinese/Thai garlic discussion.

TIm, a lot of money has been made from exporting the garlic to one of the Scandinavian countries while dodging the export taxes..

Good money is still to be made with garlic but basically this means you need to grow a sellable product.

Chinese garlic seemed to be the winner because of it's commercial traits. Thai garlic appeared too small and strong...

[Dancealot]

Thanks very much for the info Slapout, I had a feeling there may be a middle man element involved. Not a big return for the effort either it seems.

The last time I cam up with an idea for 'easy farming' was in Oz some years ago. I decided that saffron was the way to go - most valuable crop in the world etc., Anyway i went to the local Ag. research station to ask their advice. They smiled and asked me if I knew how it was harvested. Apparently you have to pluck the two stamens from each flower - by hand. There are about a million flowers to an acre, and one good windstorm can wipe them out. Oh well, back to the drawing board.

TIm, I feel you really want to make a profit in farming, I feel the same.

I, amongst others, have a drawing board as well.

[tim armstrong]

Yes D'lot, I know a profit is a bit unrealistic here, but I would like to try and get some return from our little acreage. Coming from dry old Oz, where the soil is only inches deep, to the beautiful dark loam here that is sometimes 3 or 4 metres deep near us, there must be a way. I guess just keep on reading this forum and remain optimistic.

I'm also reminded of another story about an English farmer some years ago who won millions on the Pools, and was asked what he would do with the money. 'I'll just keep farming until it runs out' was the reply. Farming is indeed a lifestyle thing

[David48]

Tim, congratulations (in Advance) of reaching 1,000 posts ...

Mate, a golden rule in Farming, it applies universally around the world, but has a sharper focus in minimal margin Farming that occurs in Thailand.

You can basically control only one thing ... your input costs.

The rain ... nope

End product price .. nope

So, keep the input costs to a minimum.

Just my worth.

.

[Jotham79]

A few things to know:

Garlic is pretty much a 1 time a year thing in most of Thailand. Way up north you may be able to do more.

Garlic is fairly labor intensive: Prepare the bulbs for planting....prepare the planning beds and apply straw.....plant the bulbs by hand.....regular watering......fertilize....spray......wed.....harvest and clean....dry (this takes space as mentioned earlier)......Selling to a wholesaler is usually easy....Hold back/store 10 to 20% of your crop for seed.

There is money to be made, but not a lot unless you do all the labor.

[tim armstrong]

Tim, congratulations (in Advance) of reaching 1,000 posts ...

Mate, a golden rule in Farming, it applies universally around the world, but has a sharper focus in minimal margin Farming that occurs in Thailand.

You can basically control only one thing ... your input costs.

The rain ... nope

End product price .. nope

So, keep the input costs to a minimum.

st my worth.

.

David, Thanks for the opportunity to reach 1,000 posts and especially on this forum, as it's definitely the best one. It's funny that its taken me so long to get here as I've lived in Thailand a long time. Your comments about farming are indeed so very true.

[David48]

Tim, the guys here are the salt of the Earth.

Been through the university of hard knocks ... still passionate, still positive.

Best place to be by far.

[RedBullHorn]

We the Chinese, preferred the pungent type...and yes...my Thai wife don't like it.

I told her that Chinese Cuisine garlic is the base. I'm still getting food cooked with no garlics most of the time.

Fedup most times. Either i change to Thai garlic or change the wife~

[tim armstrong]

I used to like the french rose garlic, but I think the Thai equivalent is better. Redbull, its probably easier to change the garlic.