# Garlic growers, hows this years crop?



## Greenthorn

Mines doing great, lot of rain, and they are bulbgantious.


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## ChoppyChoppy

I guess call me dumb, cause I didn't know garlic grew like onions.

I haven't even planted my garden yet, I usually wait till around the 1st lawn mow.


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## windthrown

If I was still growing it, they would be throwing up scapes and I would be about a month from harvesting it. This winter was really warm here, so my hardneck types would not be so great this year. I used to grow over 50 types myself. No longer.

Those look like softnecks, and a few weeks from pulling up.


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## Greenthorn

They're hardnecks, we already cut the scapes. Those scapes sure are delicious cooked on an open bar-b-que pit, we also freeze the scapes and use them in stir fries.....mmm. They will be harvested sometime in the end of July.


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## Greenthorn

Here's what last years crop looked like.
We had close to 500 bulbs.
I don't know exactly what species they are, just that they were once a purple stripe that was modified in the 1940's. We got them from a garlic farm in Indiana.


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## windthrown

Greenthorn said:


> They're hardnecks, we already cut the scapes. Those scapes sure are delicious cooked on an open bar-b-que pit, we also freeze the scapes and use them in stir fries.....mmm. They will be harvested sometime in the end of July.



Yah, the one thing I miss about growing garlic is the scapes. I make a mean pesto with them.


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## windthrown

Greenthorn said:


> Here's what last years crop looked like.
> We had close to 500 bulbs.
> I don't know exactly what species they are, just that they were once a purple stripe that was modified in the 1940's. We got them from a garlic farm in Indiana.
> View attachment 429405
> View attachment 429406



Hmmm, no such thing as a modified garlic type. Garlic does not bloom or have real flowers, so they cannot be crossed or hybridized. They stay true to form except for extremely rare mutations. You may know this but if you let the scapes mature they will form bulbils. Plant a bulbil and it will grow into a rounder the following year (bulb without cloves). Plant the rounder then next year and it will grow a head with cloves. You bypass that by planting cloves and they form a head with cloves in one year. They stay true to form as a clone though.

My guess off hand would be that you have Premium Northern White. If the cloves peel really easy it could also be Italian Easy Peel (my overall favorite). What color are the cloves and how many are there per head? Also do the scapes coil (rocambole) or just droop over?


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## Gypo Logger

Nice harvest. What kind of tree is that behind the bulb in the second picture? Silver Maple?


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## Greenthorn

windthrown said:


> Hmmm, no such thing as a modified garlic type. Garlic does not bloom or have real flowers, so they cannot be crossed or hybridized. They stay true to form except for extremely rare mutations. You may know this but if you let the scapes mature they will form bulbils. Plant a bulbil and it will grow into a rounder the following year (bulb without cloves). Plant the rounder then next year and it will grow a head with cloves. You bypass that by planting cloves and they form a head with cloves in one year. They stay true to form as a clone though.
> 
> My guess off hand would be that you have Premium Northern White. If the cloves peel really easy it could also be Italian Easy Peel (my overall favorite). What color are the cloves and how many are there per head? Also do the scapes coil (rocambole) or just droop over?



You are right, I do not know that they were modified, I was told that by the farm that sold it to us, we were told these were a cross between German red and Uzbekistan.
We have been growing these for over 16 years now, they are definitely a purple stripe. We have grown out the seed pods and planted them also. The scapes look like a pigs pecker, rocambole, I guess...some of the scapes had 10 - 12 coils in them. The garlic has a red purple stripe in 90 percent of the bulbs and there is anywhere from 6 - 14 cloves to each bulb. There are hard as hell to peel. Peel rind also turns dark brown to red when cured. As you can see by the pictures, they aren't small, most of our bulbs are larger than what Sam's club sells as elephant garlic. I actually wish I could send them someplace to find out what the actual species is.


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## Greenthorn

Gypo Logger said:


> Nice harvest. What kind of tree is that behind the bulb in the second picture? Silver Maple?



Sugar


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## Greenthorn

All 12 of the maples surrounding my house are sugar maples, we've tapped them....no fun and not worth the effort IMO, I'm happy with Aunt Jimmies or Log Cabin.


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## Rookie1

Wow guys. I just got a small education on garlic. I have a sad story about garlic. Old WW2 vet that I was friends with was going to school me on garlic and ended up dieing before we could get hooked up. Anyway found a coworker that has garlic on his property. I've been growing it for two years now. Still learning. 
Windthrown, I always admired you for liking 1123 series saws and now have another reason to respect you.


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## Chainsaw_Maniac

My garlic grows like nuts. In fact, it multiplies rapidly in my flower beds where I accidentally planted it thinking it was daffodils.


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## Iron Head

I planted a few varieties to see which ones best suit me.
I like my garlic strong, large, and long storage.
They all are doing great so I will be able to make a decision this July.
Where I'm at it seems like April was the magic month for heavy growth.


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## Greenthorn

Something we have found over the years growing is that "our" garlic prefers a hard compact soil. We have experimented several different soils, loamy, sandy, mulched compost, none of those soils created as big as bulbs as just hard compact clay based soils. It seems to me the harder the bulbs have to press against the dirt while growing, the bigger the bulbs will grow. This is not scientific data, but that is what works best for us, I can't figure that out.


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## Greenthorn

Iron Head said:


> I planted a few varieties to see which ones best suit me.
> I like my garlic strong, large, and long storage.
> They all are doing great so I will be able to make a decision this July.
> Where I'm at it seems like April was the magic month for heavy growth.




I believe the hard neck varieties have a longer shelf life after they are cured, softnecks seem to me to have a stronger flavor.
Our roasted garlic can't be beat it is awesome, one of the greatest pleasures from our garden.


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## CentaurG2

We grow both German red and Italian late. In our soil the Italian late is some hot stuff. We usually plant in the fall but I also planted in the spring with good results. If you have a food dehydrator (Excalibur) you can dry garlic and grind it for garlic powder. You want to do this outside. A full clip in the dehydrator indoors will peel the paint off the walls (ask me how I know this) but you will never have a vampire problem.


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## Iron Head

Here are some of my HNs. Some have huge stock. The soil is 80% mulch/compost and 10% dirt.


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## chuckwood

I've tried growing garlic several times, and never got much of anything. My plants never got very large, turned brown, and died, leaving me disappointed. I did get some garlic, but a much more effective use of my time and money would have been just buying some at the supermarket. I'm doing something wrong, planting at the wrong time, soil not right, something. With nearly everything else I'm getting great results. I'm going to try again, but not before doing a lot more research.


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## Greenthorn

We just busted one of last years open, wanted to show the brown or red color of the skin...



.


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## Iron Head

Greenhorn,
What variety is that? It stores so well.
And how do you store your garlic?


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## Rookie1

Here's a pic of my modest plot. I have no idea if the variety.


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## Greenthorn

Iron Head said:


> Greenhorn,
> What variety is that? It stores so well.
> And how do you store your garlic?



We are not positive what species specific it is, it is a hardneck purple stripe. We were told that it was a German red, but they also told us it was specifically mutated with a Uzbekistan breed. According to windthrown they can't be crossbred for they do not pollinate each other. From what I read, this is true.

Sorry, don't know for sure, I would like to send one somewhere to be id'd for sure.

The history was that they were imported to grow on a garlic farm in 1932, this was a huge farm, 23 acres of nothing but garlic!
I do not think they were mutated or bred, I just think they eventually hardied up for our growing environment. This farm was in business until the early 80's, so whatever they are, they are well groomed for our southern Indiana environment.

This is how we grow and store them.

We break the bulbs up, pick the largest cloves to replant, and eat and cook the rest. The smaller bulbs we store for later use and don't even break them up until use. We replant the cloves in November, we then only add a simple fertilizer 10-10-10 over the area, we water the fertilizer and then cover the entire area with 2 to 4 inches of straw, next we don't do anything except weed the weeds out 3 or 4 times. We do scrape all the straw away in early February, usually at the same time we plant peas. We don't add anything else after the initial November fertilizer, we were told if you do, the organics of fertilizer will be incorporated into the bulbs, so we've just stuck to that procedure. Not saying it's scientific or proper, it is just what works best for us.

We cut the scapes off in mid April to May, If you don't do this you will have smaller bulbs, and I also think they are more bitter if you don't cut the scapes, just our opinion.

We then dig the bulbs when 2/3 of the green tops are brown (dying) and breaking down, falling over. We will water the ground well, in fact we saturate the ground to make easier digging. This part is important because you don't want to damage the outside fragile layer of skins. We always use a potato fork to dig them. We then hang the entire plant in our barn for 3 weeks, then we take them back down, clean the plants and bulbs, spraying off all dirt, we then hang them for another 10 to 14 days in the barn. This has always been our "curing procedure" again, don't know if this is botanically or scientifically correct, but this yields our best results. So, our garlic really cures in about 6 weeks after being dug. We then cut all leaves off, and tie them into groups of 5 - 10 bulbs together and then all these bunches are thrown together in old screened baskets (baskets like you get out of old freezers). These baskets are stored in the basement within our wine cellar, no humidity or light, they are good for about 6 - 8 months like this, after that they start to dehydrate and bitter out too much. We have stored and done this procedure after many failed attempts of keeping them other ways and this is what works for us.


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## Greenthorn

Rookie1 said:


> Here's a pic of my modest plot. I have no idea if the variety.
> View attachment 430607
> View attachment 430608



They look great, need to cut the scapes off,


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## Brushpile

I was given these to work with. Have never grown garlic before. Would like to try. Can I plant them now?


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## Greenthorn

You can, but I wouldn't. I would let them cure - dry, then break up the bulbs and plant the cloves in November or December. The breed you have is also a hardneck variety, whoever grew them watered them a lot.


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## CentaurG2

Iron Head said:


> Greenhorn,
> What variety is that? It stores so well.
> And how do you store your garlic?


 
Looks like German red to me. I have never been able to keep garlic more than 6 months. It usually starts sprouting in Feb and we take whatever is left and dehydrate it for garlic powder. If you have a storage place that is dry and dark, you could probably keep it longer. Temp, light and humidity changes are responsible for sprouting.


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## CentaurG2

Brushpile said:


> I was given these to work with. Have never grown garlic before. Would like to try. Can I plant them now?View attachment 430818


 
If you want to try and grow some garlic this year, go down to a grocery store and buy a garlic bulb or two. Divide up the bulb into individual cloves and plant them about 8” apart, about 2” deep with the point up. If you have a late growing season, you will probably still get some this year. Cure and dry the plants that were given to you have and use them to replant the row in the late fall.


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## Brushpile

Thank you. I believe these were just left to grow wild on a hundred year old farm for years.


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## Greenthorn

Brushpile said:


> Thank you. I believe these were just left to grow wild on a hundred year old farm for years.



Then you have a great start for a garlic garden, they have adapted to grow well in your area. Then ones you pictured look very healthy, when they are really thick like that they've got a lot of water. We started our garlic garden with 10 bulbs. After the 3rd year we had close to 300 planted just from those initial bulbs, one year we grew close to 700 and that was way to many, we now just grow around 400 every year.


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## Iron Head

Greenhorn, thanks for the information.
I read many literatures on curing and most of them suggested sun dry the newly harvested bulbs for a couple of days prior to hanging them in the cellar.
Have you tried this method?
How would you describe the flavor of your garlic?
I like mine hot and strong but fast acting. I just can't stand those long lasting in the throat.
I am currently growing about 10 varieties to see which ones produce good for me.
Last year after I planted them, I had a taste test of the remaining cloves.
Some of them were so strong that they gave me blisters in my throat and the roof of my mouth.


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## CentaurG2

Brushpile said:


> Thank you. I believe these were just left to grow wild on a hundred year old farm for years.


 
You’re welcome. The problem with planting grocery store garlic is you will never know what variety you are growing. Most of the stuff at the grocer is some sort of softneck. You might also encounter elephant garlic which is some sort of lily. I have never grown it.

Gorgonzola garlic bread recipe:

¼ cup butter, ½ cup gorgonzola, 2-4 garlic cloves, long loaf of Italian/french bread or long rolls
Cream butter and cheese together add crushed/pressed garlic and a pinch of salt/pepper
Slice bread multiple times vertically about 1” thick on each slice but try not to cut all the way through. Spread butter/cheese mix in between each slice, wrap loaf in foil and bake 400F for about 15 min. (You can also freeze the bread and cook it later)

Don’t like stinky blue cheese, use parmesan. Lactose intolerant. Just go commando with garlic and butter or olive oil. Don’t like garlic, try roasting the garlic first. You can also add any fresh herbage you have kicking around parsley, rosemary, oregano ect. Great with spaghetti or pizza or with a Caesar.


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## Greenthorn

CentaurG2 said:


> The problem with planting grocery store garlic is you will never know what variety you are growing.



I would think the biggest drawback to commercially grown garlic from the grocery store, would be full of pesticides, fertilizers and shelf life preservatives, making them extremely hard to regrow, just my opinion. I would get some from a farmers market to regrow if I was going to.


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## Greenthorn

Iron Head said:


> Greenhorn, thanks for the information.
> I read many literatures on curing and most of them suggested sun dry the newly harvested bulbs for a couple of days prior to hanging them in the cellar.
> Have you tried this method?
> How would you describe the flavor of your garlic?
> I like mine hot and strong but fast acting. I just can't stand those long lasting in the throat.
> I am currently growing about 10 varieties to see which ones produce good for me.
> Last year after I planted them, I had a taste test of the remaining cloves.
> Some of them were so strong that they gave me blisters in my throat and the roof of my mouth.



We tried sun drying them a couple times, seemed to leave more of a dirtier taste to them.
What I said earlier was we just dig them and hang them in barn, we don't even clean them off, just hang em. After that cure, we get them back down then wash them all clean and hang back up. I have never tried just hanging them in basement to cure or dry, so I can't comment on that.
I know there are other people on this board that grow garlic, I've read their post before, maybe they are to busy to chime in right now.
I do not like hot or spicey garlic, just my preference....ours are very mellow. When we roast them we just slice to tops off, olive oil, roast in the oven at 400 for 30 minutes. Although we do not butter them, they have a buttery....sort of vinaigrette flavor, very smooth.


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## CentaurG2

Greenthorn said:


> I would think the biggest drawback to commercially grown garlic from the grocery store, would be full of pesticides, fertilizers and shelf life preservatives, making them extremely hard to regrow, just my opinion. I would get some from a farmers market to regrow if I was going to.


 
Agreed but it is getting late in the season. My local Agway had garlic bulbs earlier this year but I think they are long gone. I don’t think any bulbs will be available in the farmers markets yet. The supermarket stuff will do fine. I often see it sprouting in the store bins. Even if it doesn’t grow, the row will be ready for fall planting. Give it a try.

I often get plants from my grocer. My first batch of dill came from the supermarket. Nice little plants with roots. Took right off and are going strong. They also had some nice cilantro but I don’t really like it. My watercress (currently in a feed tub) came from the grocer. Get a bunch for 99 cents, pop it in some shallow water and it will put out roots and grow like a bad weed. Great in salads. I have several avocado plants and I am even trying to grow a pineapple. It really does not matter what you are growing or how you do it. Just try to grow something. Once you have had some success, perfect your techniques then try to keep it as green as you possibly can.


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## Sawyer Rob

My garlic always does really good here too, here's some of it,






I grow just enough each year, for us, and to give a bit of it away... We have been saving our own seed and replanting it for more than 40 years now...

SR


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## Sawyer Rob

Several days ago, i dug some more of my garlic,






I'm happy with what I got.... but i still have a bit more to dig, i'll get to it later...

SR


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## Rookie1

Ok garlic masters is my garlic ready to be dug up.


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## Greenthorn

Got this years crop ready to put up, and got my ground worked up for next year..


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## titanman6100

yes was a good year


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## Rookie1

Here is a pic of my crop. Any pointers?


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## Iron Head

Very nice patch. Remove the scapes and do some weeding.


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## MountainHigh

Some nice looking garlic crops here guys.

I've been growing mine since late 1980's. Have tried 12 different varieties over the years, but always come back to the Big, Hot, Russian, Purple Stripe. Story goes mine came over as seed in the stockings of a Doukhobor grandmother when they emmigrated from Russia. I bought my first seed garlic from the grandson. We think it may be a rare Matechi variety. Heads get to the size of a mans fist, nice and hot, amazing keeper, *15 *months  when stored dry.

I used to plant 700 or more, but just do about 250 now, enough for the family and to give some away.

To respond to the question about buying some from grocery store to plant, around here grocery store garlic is softneck junk from China. Goes bad in a month or 2. Not even worth planting. Go to farmers markets and find some good stuff - you'll never eat garlic from the grocery store again.

I'll take some pics when it stops raining - this years crop still in the garden - just snipping scapes now and wifey made some walnut/Scape Pesto.


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## farmer steve

here's the first crop of garlic grown here on my farm. i had some Korean folks want to rent a small patch to grow some. they wanted to know how much they owed me to rent the ground. i told them i just needed some garlic to sell in my market. i ended up with 5 baskets like this. i got a good education on garlic growing. the one fella is from canada and grows 40 acres of garlic.


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