Common Ground Radio 9/11/25: Growing Great Garlic in Maine

Host: Holli Cederholm
Editor:
Clare Boland

Common Ground Radio is an hour-long discussion of local food and organic agriculture with people here in the state of Maine and beyond.

This month:
This episode of Common Ground Radio is all about garlic! Garlic grows from cloves, which are planted in the fall. Mature heads of garlic are then harvested the following summer. From seed selection to fertility to mulching practices, Brittany Hopkins of Wise Acres Farm shares how she cultivates a healthy, certified organic garlic crop in Kenduskeag, Maine.

List of subjects:
– Gardening
– Growing garlic
– When to plant garlic
– Mulching
– Garlic disease
– Garlic harvest and curing

Guest/s:
Brittany Hopkins of Wise Acres Farm.

FMI-

Garlic disease — mofga.org/resources/garlic/garlic
– Garlic disease — fedcoseeds.com/resources/pests-and-diseases/nematodes-and-white-rot
– When to plant garlic in Maine — mofga.org/resources/garlic/when-to-plant-garlic
Growing garlic in Maine — extension.umaine.edu/publications/2063e
– Maine Seed Garlic Directory — extension.umaine.edu/agriculture/garlic/maine-seed-garlic-directory
– UMaine Garlic bulletins — extension.umaine.edu/agriculture/garlic
Plant disease diagnostic testing — extension.umaine.edu/ipm/plant-disease/plant-disease-diagnostic-testing

About the hosts:
Holli Cederholm has been involved in organic agriculture since 2005 when she first apprenticed on a small farm. She has worked on organic farms in Maine, Vermont, Connecticut, Scotland and Italy and, in 2010, founded a small farm focused on celebrating open-pollinated and heirloom vegetables. As the former manager of a national nonprofit dedicated to organic seed growers, she authored a peer-reviewed handbook on GMO avoidance strategies for seed growers. Holli has also been a steward at Forest Farm, the iconic homestead of “The Good Life” authors Helen and Scott Nearing; a host of “The Farm Report” on Heritage Radio Network; and a lo0ng-time contributor for The Maine Organic Farmer & Gardener, which she now edits in her role as content creator and editor at MOFGA.