Growing Garlic

We have Toulouse and White Chinese geese. Actually we have a pair of Toulouse, but the White Chinese goose died a year or so ago and we didn't replace it. The Toulouse goose actually hatched two goslings this spring, which was a first. One died for some unknown reason but the other is going strong and getting big. We will butcher him out in the fall because we don't need four, especially since we don't want inbreeding. We do our own butchering; we just figure it's part of the farm cycle. I am surprised that the organic bird place was so awful; I thought good sanitation and humane conditions were the point of buying organic.

Looks like you got some nice big garlic cloves there; congratulations!

This message was edited Jul 13, 2010 2:24 PM

There weren't many and some were very tiny. But I put them on a patio chair that has a woven back and seat so plenty of circulation going thru. Am I correct in thinking that the bulbs aren't supposed to be touching each other while they dry and the chair should be kept in the shade? And how long do I leave them to dry?

Unfortunately, they all fit on one chair.


This message was edited Jul 13, 2010 7:24 PM

This one has two little bulblets on each side. The photo is sideways but you get the idea.

Love your garlic! I should go check mine now.

That looks great, Gwen. Yes, keep the chair in the shade, and bring them in over night because there will be condensation on them otherwise.

Oh my, what a lot of bother. Perhaps I need to reconsider my future order! LOL

Oh, but when you are eating all you delicious, fresh garlic, you will find that it was worth all the bother. LOL

I have no interest in growing garlic but i'm really enjoying this thread. Lots of good information.

I'll definitely think it was a lot of bother when I'm having to peel the stuff. I hate peeling garlic! It's one of the kitchen chores I really do not like. I'll confess that last year I broke down and bought one of those big jars of minced garlic. LOL I felt so guilty but boy was it nice to just open the jar and scoop. It lasted me almost the entire year! I only just recently ran out.

Have you used the knife method, flattening the clove against the countertop or cutting board with the broad side of a chef's knife? It peels really easily that way. My thirteen-year-old granddaughter was here with a friend last week and they took over the job of making the pesto for dinner, and I overheard her explaining to her friend that that was the best way to peel garlic as she demonstrated. Did my heart good to know she has been learning my cooking tricks!

Oh, yes. I have tried every method known to woman.

What you need is the large cloved garlic. Some of the hardnecks tend to be very easy to peel and have large cloves, so you only need to peel one clove for a recipe that calls for two. Asian Tempest is especially easy. I gave my neighbor some of that and it is her absolute favorite. She does a lot of cooking.

I wonder whether that would grow here, Holly. And how do you store hardnecks- obviously you couldn't braid them, or could you, somehow? Asian Tempest sounds perfect for me, too.

Well, golly, now I have to go and add Asian tempest to my list. Do you think I should cut down on the number of varieties and get more bulbs of less varieties? Which do you think are the best of the varieties I mentioned above. Starting to get nervous about keeping track of all the different varieties...

Now this might sound funny, but I store my hardneck garlic standing in a corner of my guest bedroom. My most frequent guest is my mother who doesn't mind,and I supply her with garlic to take home as well. I lay down newspaper over the rug and stand them up along the wall about 2 deep. The stalk is completely dry by then and does not drip garlic sap all over the wall.

You actually can braid hardnecks if you take a hammer and pound the stalk so it is bendable. I have never done this as it crossed the "too much bother" line for me. Besides, I already had 2 braids of softneck garlic hanging in the kitchen and no room for more.

Gwen, you have to decide if your goal this coming year is to try many different kinds to find your personal favorites, or simply to grow a few different kinds that fulfill various harvest niches and culinary purposes.

I am not familiar with all the garlic varieties on your list, so can't recommend one way or the other, but here is my suggestion if you want to plant fewer different varieties. Choose:

1 super early type (the Turbans harvest in early to mid June for me)

1 pretty early type (Asian Tempest fits this niche -end of June- and is super easy to peel)

1 Rocambole type (these are supposed to have the best flavor but have a harder time in our wet climate) I have not planted these due to the climate issue, but I think Whidbey is slightly dryer and you could be successful.

1 porcelain or purple stripe type (these tend to have big cloves and are easy to peel -mine are late harvest, up to mid July) I plant Armenian because I am Armenian, and it is fun to send to my relatives, but another could be better for you. Eweed has had great success with Music judging from the pictures above.

1 or 2 artichoke types (longer storing, braidable, can choose early, mid or late harvest variety, but these tend to be harder to peel and have more small cloves -interior ones- as part of the bulb). Inchelium Red is an all around good one, mid season harvest, big bulbs, big outer cloves, winner of Rodale taste test. Early July harvest. I am unfamiliar with the other varieties you have on your list. They could be great.


I like to have a range of harvest times from extra early to late so it doesn't all have to come in at once. I plant the earliest at the southern end of the bed and move north from there with harvest in sequence. This way I stop watering the south end 3 weeks earlier than the north end to facilitate dry down.

I'll compare your list to mine and see if I can pare down.

Great suggestion about planting according to harvest time. I would not have thought to do that!

Just read this article on growing perennial garlic; interesting!

http://www.mulandscaping.com/ArticleGarlicYouOnlyPlantOnce.htm

Now, for one of us po' folk with only a 10x3' raised bed who want to put in a row of hard neck garlic the first time, what should one do to get seed cloves? I mean seriously 1/4# of any variety is going to go a long way. And if I put up my cloche in the spring is that going to mess up the plants?

Analogdog, I seem to remember that with your fabulous raised bed and cloche you had veggies to eat far before I was even finished preparing a bed to plant this year. So...there are definite benefits to the smaller, more easily tended garden. If I could only plant one row, I would choose one favorite kind. Pick one your like and plant only the largest cloves. Tend it well and you'll have some great bulbs.

I've never put my garlic in a cloche, so i don't know how it will respond. Possibly you will have a jump on the season and grow large, leafy plants. How long do you leave the cloche on generally?

Willow, I forgot to post earlier, you are totally welcome to enjoy this thread even if you have no plan to plant any garlic.Though it would be easy to grow some tucked here and there in your garden beds if you should change your mind and want to try growing your own.

Where would I go to get the garlic of my hearts desire? I want a hard necked variety that gives a killer garlic flavor when cooked.

As to the cloche I put it on in early April and we had radish city, then the lettice started doing well. I will probably do the same thing this year. Except the pipe will be connected to rebar instead of the bogus installation I did. It came off around June when the weather mellowed out.

1/4# is not really a lot of garlic as far as giving you a lof of planting cloves. Here's what Filaree told me:

"Figuring 8 bulbs per lb most varieties give about 60 cloves per lb. Porcelain give only 40 cloves per lb due the larger, fewer cloves per bulb. Softneck varieties - Artichoke and Silverskin - can give 70 to 80 cloves per lb depending on how small a clove you are willing to plant."

So if you were to get 1/4# of of porcelain, you'd only have 10 cloves to plant. Be sure to keep in mind you may want to have some garlic left to replant for the next year.

For me, I made of list of everything I use garlic for and approx how many I use. I use a lot of garlic when I make my tomato sauce that I freeze to use for the year. I can throw in 10 or more cloves for each batch of tomatoes I roast. So that goes thru them pretty quickly. Of course, I have to hope that both the tomato and the garlic harvest come thru!

I also love to roast a whole head of garlic, one for each person, to serve at dinner with bread. This really impresses your dinner guests and is great fun. But it really blows thru the garlic! I don't do it too often because a head of organic garlic per person from the store is costly. But since I'm going to be growing my own, I allocated 40 cloves for this purpose.

It's an investment the first year, but I do hope to have good garlic for replanting the following year.

I thought people only roasted the elephant garlic for the bread thing. Guess I better give the hard necks a try.

Analog, Chesnok Red might be the garlic for you. It is a hardneck variety which has a strong garlic flavor that is maintained when baked. I got some of this kind from Filaree Farm. You may want to contact them directly to discuss your planting situation with the raised bed and cloche and ask which of their varieties would do best in that situation. They grow all their own and know much more about their product than other places (Territorial for example) that buy from other growers to resell for seed stock.

Thanks, MH, I will contact the farm and see what they have to say,

If any folks want to make garlic braids, it's time to choose some of your prettiest bulbs for this purpose. Actually, it may be a little past time, since it took some coordination for me to arrange another person to take pictures while I made a braid, and then my computer crashed so I have been unable to post them. You may be able you to view them by going to my sister's Flicker site (healingartist). They are on there ion backwards order though, and I'm not sure they will make sense without a running commentary, but really you can make a satisfactory braid just messing around and tying it together at the top.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/healingartist/

My method is as follows:

1.number of bulbs to make a braid... multiples of 3 plus one will work. So 7, 10, 13, 16, etc. I find that 10 is generally a good number for a short braid.

2. Choose 3 bulbs to make the base (lower end) of the braid. Cross 2 of these so the stems make an X up by the bulb. I put the right hand stem underneath since I am right handed. This comes from the bulb that is on the left. Place the third bulb in the center so the stem comes up through the middle. If your stems are still flexible enough, wrap the middle stem around the other two stems so that it still comes up through the middle ( it will go under and around forming a small loop, hard to explain in words, but vertically in line with the braid, not around sideways). This holds everything together. You may also use a string to tie them together if your stems are too brittle to do this.

3. place your 4th bulb in the center. There will now be 2 stems in the center position. Take the right hand stem and fold it over the 2 stems in the center, so it will take over the center position.

4. Place your 5th bulb over to the right and place the stem in center, with the single stem that is now there. Wrap the stem from the left hand position over these two.

5. Place your 6th bulb on the left hand side with the stem in the center position. There are now 2 stems in each position. Wrap the 2 stems in the right hand position over the 2 stems in the center position.

6. Place your 7th bulb in the center, with the stem in the center. Wrap the left hand stems over.

7. The 8th bulb goes on the left hand side, stem in the center. Wrap the right hand stems over.

8. 9th bulb on the right, stem in center, wrap over left hand stems.

9. 10th bulb in the center, stem in the center, wrap over the right hand stems.

10. If that is the end of your braid, continue braiding the stems several more times,

11. To attach a loop, cut a piece of thin wire, about 18 inches long. place this over the front of the braided stems just above where your braiding ends. About a third of it going over to one side and two thirds to the other side.wrap them around to the back, twist together once, form a loop to hang the braid from with the longer section of wire, twist the leftover ends so they are well connected and tuck this into the braided stems so it doesn't protrude.

12. You can tie a ribbon over the wire and tuck some herbs or lavender in to make it pretty.


Whew!! That was much harder to explain in words than just to show in person. Really it is not very difficult.



This message was edited Aug 3, 2010 9:59 AM

I won't be trying this as most of mine are hardnecks and I don't have that many this year anyway.

Next year, let's do a roundup at this time and we can all bring our garlic to braid!

Plan ahead, round up at Holly's!!!!

I would be happy to have people come visit for a garlic braiding party at the end of next July. I do hope I will have some successful garlic in the upcoming year. The fungus that I somehow imported wiped out four fifths of my crop this year. I got about 50 out of 250 that I had planted. The garlic I am braiding in the pictures on the flickr link is actually my sister's. I was showing her my braiding method.

edited to say, I can figure out fractions when thinking clearly (in the middle of the night).

I have been up researching apartments and rooms for rent near Shoreline Community College, for my son. It is a long and difficult story, but he found a room for this August which may not work out in the long run--too far from the college really, though very cheap because he would be doing some work for rent. But there are some other unforeseen difficulties that may not be worked out. I am feeling relatively sane, though clearly sleep deprived, after being in agony for the last few days after leaving him there on Sunday night.

This message was edited Aug 5, 2010 3:02 AM

Oh, Holly. I'm so sorry. I know how hard you've worked to eradicate that fungus. To lose 2/3? What a difficult thing.

The bright side of this garlic deficit is that I have very little root trimming to do and my house is not completely taken over by drying garlic. I edited the fraction of crop loss after seeing that I was not accurate in my above posting. Yikes. the brain must be taking math vacations in my middle age, though I really did take calculus long ago in high school.

I was just reading in a gardening book on rotating crops and they show leaving the garlic in the same place year after year. Maybe it was all perennial garlic but why would you want a big bed of that? I would think the annual garlic would need to be rotated. Thoughts?

Bummer on your son's apartment. My son and his gf are having no luck at all in finding a place to live in Walla Walla. No one there takes pets and they have a cat. :(

I have never planted the garlic in the same place the following year, because I have read that rotating crops is better for their overall health, not depleting the nutrients from the soil, and preventing buildup of pests and diseases. I had a 7 year rotation going for the garlic (only back in a bed 7 years later). I think this is why the fungus has not built up to devastating proportions until now. However, the rotation (and my habit of transplanting things around) also resulted in the fungus being spread about to many locations. I did have an accidental perennial garlic clump at the end of a bed that I had left go as an experiment. I pulled it up this year, got some larger bulbs from around the edges of the clump, but the ones in the middle were quite small. All were misshapen from growing in a constricted environment bunched up together.

The only perennial garlic I know of isn't really a garlic but is an onion, the egyptian walking onion. I like those - they are cool looking!

You know those little bulbs at the end of the hardneck garlics? I never got around to cutting mine off. What would happen if I planted one of those?

My first garlic harvest! I only had 3 softnecks to braid! :)

The hardnecks are stored in my garlic basket which I made a couple years ago in a basket class.

Homegrown garlic in a homemade basket - am I a country girl or what?!?!

Sounds rewarding.

Gwen, those are scapes and apparently they're quite a gourmet treat, although I've never played with them. I don't know what would happen if you planted them; might be worth a try.

I think the scape is only good when it's green and making the curve. If you planted the whole bulb you would get a little grass like colony and not much bulb. However, the grassy beginnings can be eaten too, more like chives in spring time. Much better crop if you would separate the cloves and plant them individually.

No, I'm talking about the little bulb that at the top of the scape. Looks like it may contain seeds if left to dry on the plant. Do you think I could plant that and get anything? I'm going to plant a couple and see what happens.

I often wondered about that too. Go for it Gwenda and let us know. I plant things like that and then forget what the plan wass.... need to garden journal again.

The link below shows my garlic harvest - photos taken on August first.
Have to plant MORE garlic next year, especially more good storing varieties.
I am very, very happy with how the garlic did in the Earth Boxes. I had fungus problems last year, as did lots of people in our area (as I found out from the organic farmers at my local Farmer's Market). I nevertheless replanted the best of my stock, and they did very well! (some has a little fungus, but nothing as bad as last year)
http://www.boelstoddard.com/garlic-harvest