Garlic

[Durgan]

Originally Posted by Farmette

Think I will try the wood chips this year. I have been covering with shredded leaves the past few yrs with no problem, but this yr the leaves blew off and I did not see soon enough...the snow came and covered the bed. This spring I can see that the cloves appear to have rotted...120 potential bulbs of 12 different varieties gone. This garden is not at my house so that is why I did not notice the leaves being gone.

That is heartbreaking. It appears to me your soil is not drained enough. There is usually no need to mulch a garlic bed. Heavy snow cover is sufficient. Mulching is is primarily to prevent the freeze thaw cycles from causing damage by the ground heaving. I do get a thawing cycle in January which can cause damage if the ground starts to thaw, hence the mulch. I use the mulch to retain moisture during the growing season, due to evaporation by a hot Sun.

[Farmette]

Actually, the garlic is in a very well drained raised bed. However, we had several freeze thaw cycles.

[nolabelle]

I know this is dumb, but I did it as an experiment. I planted a garlic clove from the fridge in the pot with thyme and oregano. In a week it had a green shoot. Now it has three green shoots. I'm not sure what to expect, but it lends some dimension to the multiple planting as a whole.

Seriously, I would love to grow garlic because I can't live without it. I'm sure there's a thread here somewhere that explains how to plant grow it. I'm new here and still fishing around. Great site!

[Durgan]

Originally Posted by nolabelle

I know this is dumb, but I did it as an experiment. I planted a garlic clove from the fridge in the pot with thyme and oregano. In a week it had a green shoot. Now it has three green shoots. I'm not sure what to expect, but it lends some dimension to the multiple planting as a whole.

Seriously, I would love to grow garlic because I can't live without it. I'm sure there's a thread here somewhere that explains how to plant grow it. I'm new here and still fishing around. Great site!

http://www.durgan.org/URL/?HIBIY 31 July 2012 Collecting Garlic Seeds
Seeds collected, washed in water and allowed to dry.

http://www.durgan.org/URL/?DTOIB 14 July 2012. Garlic. Final preparation for storage
Garlic was trimmed in preparation for storage.There are slightly more than 100 bulbs for storage.

http://www.durgan.org/URL/?ILQFH 14 July 2012 Garlic. Scapes allowed to form seeds.
Scapes allowed to grow to form seeds. Now in the flowering stage.

http://www.durgan.org/URL/?TCXKI 1 July 2012 Garlic Harvested.
Garlic was harvested today, about 140 plants were harvested. Sixteen of the largest were set aside for planting for the 2013 year. The soil was loosened with a fork then the plant pulled. Ten plants were slip knot tied into a bundle and hung to dry in partial shade. Later they were hung in the shed for curing. There were about ten rejects due to damage or malformed bulbs, and ten plants with small bulbs were set aside for immediate use.The harvest was almost identical to previous years. My garlic bulbs has six cloves of almost the same size.Ten plants with scapes still on were left to produce seed. Almost all the mulch applied in 2011 has disappeared.The soil was very dry.I pull my garlic when the lower leaves start to die off,usually within the first five days of July.Storage garlic is better pulled early rather than late. It stores longer.

http://www.durgan.org/URL/?SXHNW 5 June 2012 Garlic Scapes Removed
The scapes were removed from the garlic plants. Twelve were not removed so bulbils (the garlic seeds) can be produced, and after three years with successive planting will produce normal size clone bulbs.

http://www.durgan.org/URL/?CFGOS 15 May 2012 Garlic Growth
A new area is selected for garlic each year. This area tends to be rather wet but is well drained. The wetness was of some concern, but it now appears to be beneficial.The garlic plants this year are the most robust seen over the last five years, and there is two months before harvest about the 10 of July 2012.

http://www.durgan.org/URL/?QIVZF 22 March 2012 Garlic Thriving

http://www.durgan.org/URL/?DTNMZ 24 Ocober 2011 Planting Hard Neck Garlic
About 100 cloves of hard neck garlic was planted in a 8 by 8 foot bed. Cloves were planted at six inch spacing with the base firmly pushed into the soil at a depth (base) of about two inches. The bulbs were saved from the 2011 crop, and were large, with from five to seven cloves in each bulb. The bed was mulched with wood chips to limit the effects of the normal winter thawing and freezing cycles, and to limit moisture loss due to evaporation. The vegetation has no difficulty pushing through the mulch in the Spring. The bed wont be touched until the scapes (seed pods) are removed, and then the harvest about the 10 of July 2012. A new bed area is selected each year, which is laced with compost and worked into the underlying soil.

[nolabelle]

Great pics, Durgan, though I saw those previously as I read through the thread. Thanks!

[troad]

nolabelle
http://www.gourmetgarlicgardens.com/overview.htm

everything you wanted to know

[Durgan]

http://www.durgan.org/URL/?RNQHF 16 July 2013 Garlic Harvest
About 100 bulbs of the garlic, hard neck, was harvested. Some had the scapes removed previously and were compared to some with the scapes allowed to grow.No perceptible difference was detected in size.Ten plants were allowed to continue growing to allow the seed pods to mature, since I want to grow some bulbils this year.The harvested plants will be allowed to thoroughly dry over about three weeks in partial shade. After thoroughly cured they will last about eight months.The quality is excellent and comparable to previous years.

[meganp]

great looking harvest how many varieties did you plant? read in another thread that you had some bulbils come up in an area that you hadn't intended to plant them - did you allow them to continue growing and if so, how did they fare? I have always left the scapes on my hardnecks and the spathes aren't always open when I harvest my garlic. The bulbils continue to grow as the garlic cures, so it's not necessary to wait for the spathe to mature and split before harvesting, the bulbils will still be viable for planting. It will be interesting to see whether the bulbils on the garlic that you've already harvested will be any bigger than those from the bulbs left to in the ground to continue growing.

[Durgan]

I planted 100 seeds in a separate bed last Fall and not one came up. I suspect the seed was overheated by keeping it in the greenhouse over the Summer. I pulled the few that had fallen in the old bed, there were about ten. Anyway I will try again this year.

I read somewhere that it is better to plant the seed in the early Spring rather than late Fall. I will try some next year both Fall and early Spring. This only refers to the seed not the clove planting which is undertaken in the late Fall in my Zone 5.

I did grow seeds successfully a few years ago. Planted seeds in the Fall and got one nice sized clove the following year. Planted this clove and got three normal sized cloves the following year. Planted these three cloves and got a normal, typical sized bulb the following year.

My garlic doesn't have a name. It is hard neck, all white about 5 to 8 almost same size cloves per bulb. I have been growing from the same bulbs for around 8 years, plus a few similar if I find some at a Farmer's market that are exceptional. I only grow one type.

[riceke]

Originally Posted by nolabelle

I know this is dumb, but I did it as an experiment. I planted a garlic clove from the fridge in the pot with thyme and oregano. In a week it had a green shoot. Now it has three green shoots. I'm not sure what to expect, but it lends some dimension to the multiple planting as a whole.

Seriously, I would love to grow garlic because I can't live without it. I'm sure there's a thread here somewhere that explains how to plant grow it. I'm new here and still fishing around. Great site!

NOLABELLE...you can grow it in pots as well. Just fill up a 14~16" wide pot with potting soil or mix and plant. But in your neck of the woods I would plant a softneck garlic. You can find them at Gourmet garlic website.

[tjg911]

i wouldn't plant in the spring. from what i have read it produces smaller bulbs. i really think you need to have that root growth in the fall for a head start in spring.

i do like the idea of not cutting scapes and not having it effect the size of the bulbs tho from the same source i read you should for larger bulbs and better storage. i may let the scapes grow next year and either just dig them with the scapes on them or cut the scapes when they are going straight up and they can all be removed at one time. i don't like having to cut scapes over a 15-20 day period in oppressive heat and humidity.

i don't like to eat scapes. i do but i view them as a PITA to cut and consume. i'm sure people would pay good money for organic scapes, seems at the farm markets they were getting $7 a pound and i seriously doubt that was organic.

tom

[guruofgardens]

Tom - I'm with you about planting in October, at least for our zones. For us, it takes a good 9 months in the ground to grow decent sized garlic, with large enough heads to separate and plant again. We break the scapes early, or cut them with scissors if we have the time. Regarding the size of the heads with and without scapes - we did an experiment this year, leaving 10 plants with the scapes on. Results - much smaller heads with the scapes still on. In fact, I gave them away as I didn't think they were worth saving.

Cut scapes - we cut them in 1" pieces and put them into the freezer when we make soup in the winter. They do seem to flavor the soup, but otherwise, I give most of them away, too. I think we like the more intense flavor of the hardnecks, so we put up with the hassle of breaking/cutting the scapes.

[tjg911]

well there's no doubt in my mind that hardnecks are the only way to go and i'd add the rocambole are much better than the porcelains but don't store as long. the only good thing i could say about softenecks is there is no scape to cut. now sometimes, but not always, softnecks store longer than porcelains but i can't count that as it depends upon the type of softneck. in every other respect hardnecks beat softnecks. guess my hope for not cutting scapes is just hope.

tom

[riceke]

Not being able to grow hardnecks in my neck of the woods, I plant softneck vaieties. But I have to agree with TJG911 that the problem with softnecks is that they don't store very long and only produce a couple med~large cloves surrounded by a bunch of small useless bulbets. And also they are a dickens to peel as the skins don't separate easily.

[tjg911]

ken some of the longest storing garlic are softnecks due to the extremely tight clove and bulb wrappers but not all softnecks store a long time.

artichokes have larger cloves and less of them but silverskins are brutal to peel having a few "larger" cloves and dozens of tiny cloves.

tom