Garlic

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I was reading on another board about all the differnt varieties of garlic. Now I have grown garlic for about 4 years, but I went to our local farmers market, picked out some big bulbs that were 4 for $1, and planted them. I have no idea what kind it is! Most of the seed catalogs I get only have one or two varieties, so where do you all get all of these different kinds? Is there a big differnce in taste? Thanks for the info.

-- Melissa (cmnorris@1st.net), November 09, 2001

Answers

Melissa, your timing couldn't be better! I just finished planting next year's garlic bed (which took up 1/3 of the garden!), with several different types of garlic. There are two types of garlic, softneck and hardneck, with many varieties of each. I planted Susanville, a softneck braiding type, with good storage capabilites - two pounds gave me close to 150 plants. I don't plant the smaller cloves, I found that the larger cloves produce larger heads, consistently.

Another type I planted en masse was Polish Jenn, a hardneck garlic. The two pounds gave me one wide row, with approx. 80 plants, whereas the softneck gave two. The reason for the glaring difference between the types is that the Polish Jenn, being a hardneck, grows 4-6 LARGE cloves per head, and the other has smaller, more numerous cloves.

In addition to these types, I planted two organic types, 8 ounces each - Georgian Fire and Kettle River Giant. I wanted to try these and the others with the hope of a strong grower and potential future heads to grow for next year. These are hardneck types, and all of these garlics were purchased from Territorial Seed Company in Oregon. www.territorialseed.com phone# (888)657-3131

Territorial Seed has many varieties of garlic (20+), and their quality has been very good to excellent.

And in case you all must be wondering WHAT can I be doing with so much garlic, I plan to give garlic braids as gifts, I make lots of salsa and pesto (I grow tomatoes and basil, too), and we eat a LOT of garlic in this household (vampires have never been a problem).

Hope this helps a bit.

-- Judi (ddecaro@snet.net), November 09, 2001.


When would you harvest? Can you use garlic from the grocery store if you can't find any garlic around at the co-op?

-- Ann Markson (tngreenacres@hotmail.com), November 10, 2001.

I have never used store-bought garlic, but if I were, I'd find the heads with the largest cloves on the outside and plant them. After planting the cloves, I mulch with compost and shredded leaves.

I usually harvest in July when the tops start to turn yellow. During the last month before harvest, don't water - otherwise the heads can get moldy during storage.

-- Judi (ddecaro@snet.net), November 10, 2001.


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