2007 update coming soon
Click here for the site directory.
Click here to email us.

Garlic
 (Allium sp.)


Sponsored links:

Cultivars

Garlic growing.

There is a charming poster that shows a full-color closeup of a few cloves of garlic; it is labelled "Italian caviar," and that sums up garlic excellently. Garlic qualifies as a great vegetable because not only is it an indispensible cookery ingredient, it can well and delightfully be eaten as and for itself (squeeze the paste from roasted garlic out on some lightly toasted French/Italian bread, pop a young, slightly acidic red wine, and preview Paradise).

Aficionados of garlic cultivars are perhaps not as vociferous as chileheads or tomato fanciers, but we daresay they rank ahead of even corn advocates. Making particular choices from the wealth of available possibilities is difficult. We are fortunate in that there is a garlic specialist--Filaree Farm--in our, as they put it, "eco-region"; we thus have, at the least, a good basis for believing that the types we select will at least grow well here. (In much of the information on this page, we are closely following Filaree's helpful combination catalogue/guide.)

There are a myriad types of garlic. They can be classed in hierarchies, the top levels of which have some botanical significance and the lower levels of which are more expert experience than botany (at least so far--the field is still advancing). The critical factors in selecting even classes of interest are two: taste, and storage ability (for there is no point in growing a year's supply of a kind that only keeps for a few months). Suitability for growing is third by so much that it scarcely figures in out here; to the minimal extent that it does, it would be to eliminate that class called "Creole" garlics, which "perform best in mild-winter and southern climates". Here, then, are the key data.


Classes and Flavor

The highest-level division is into "hardneck" and "softneck" types (see the discussion down the page under "Biology"). Very broadly speaking, hardnecks have more intense flavors--they are more closely related to their wild ancestor--but lesser storage capabilities, while conversely softnecks are excellent "keepers" but often milder. (That is a broad-brush simplification with numerous exceptions and half-exceptions.)

There are three main subdivisions of hardnecks ("rocambole", "porcelain", and purple stripe") and two of softnecks ("artichoke" and "silverskin"); some have further subdivisions. Here are those divisions, and some taste notes (not from us).


Storage Ability

Under good storage conditions, which are not hard to achieve (room temperature and medium to low humidity), one can hope for these results:

Rocamboles, however, have a tendency to dehydrate in storage under dry conditions (less than about 50% humidity), which we tend to have out here.


Some Conclusions

Sheer logic allows us to extract some fairly simple conclusions from the data given above. Of the kinds that can potentially store a full year, the Creoles seem poor choices in our region, which leaves the silverskins; but the silverskins are undistinguished in a culinary sense, so we want only as many as necessary--say ¼ of our crop, to get us from 10 months to 12 months post-harvest. in the range of 7 to 9 months post-harvest, we have the porcelains and the "artichoke: types: but--to us, anyway--"mild-tasting garlic" sounds to us like an oxymoron, so we can discard the "artichoke" types and say that another ¼ of our crop will be porcelain types. And, because we have already eliminated the "artichoke" types as wimpy, the other ½ of our crop will be either rocambole or purple-stripe types--say ¼ rocambole and ¼ purple stripe, or posibly--because they store a little better and may be a little better culinarily--a full ½ purple stripe (somehow, those just sound better than the rocambole types).

There: wasn't that easy?


Our Choices

Now we need to choose within the types specified above. At this level, one has to go by either extensive personal experience (which we lack), or the catalogue descriptions in the seedsmen's catalogues. And, at the outset, one has to be prepared to experiment for a few seasons.

We're hoping for six dozen garlic plants--that equates (under ideal conditions: full growth and no storage losses) to using about a bulb of garlic every five days through the year, so even for garlic lovers like us there's a margin for error--and so can trial several types, subject to order minima. (Filaree has a ¼-pound minimum order per type; though this varies with type, and even date, that is very, very roughly 16 cloves minimum--so we can probably order no less than one-quarter of our crop as any one type.)

Here, then, is what we have chosen:


Planting

Timing

Out here, we plant garlic in the fall--typically around October 1st (which is about, one hopes, 6 weeks before the first hard frost)--to overwinter, then grow through the following summer. One always plants garlic where it is to grow.


The Bed

Garlic wants a sunny spot. The soil should be rich (but not too rich, or the tops will overdevelop). Garlic does not do well in really sandy or really clay-ey soils, or soils lacking in organic matter; the soil should be loamy, and well-drained.

While one can add soil amendments, there's usually little one can do about excesses already present. Still, research has shown that high phosphorous levels can decrease plant height, average bulb weight, and usable yield, so keep that in mind.


Planting Out

Plant individual cloves with the root end down--be sure you don't set them upside-down! Set them an inch or two deep. Mulch them as soon as they are planted, using some loose stuff that the emerging stalks can easily penetrate (straw is excellent). Some sources say to set them 6 inches apart; others--deep-bed sources--suggest that 4 inches will suffice. Obvious, but probably worth saying anyway: large cloves will produce large bulbs, and small, small; save the smallest cloves from your seed bulbs (usually the interior ones) for kitchen use and plant only the larger ones.


Growing

In the spring, the garlics will send up greens through the mulch. When those emerge, begin watering them, more or less like any garden green. If you can apply some extra nitrogen at this time, so much the better.

Somewhere around mid-May, the garlics will finish their green-growth stage and start bulbing up. Around that time you can slightly cut back their watering.

Vital note! Hardneck types will, somewhere around early June, send up a flower stalk: keep a close eye on it. About a week after those stalks begin to uncoil, turn woody, and stand upright, cut the stalks off about ½ inch above the top plant leaf. Fail in that, and you'll get little if any bulb.

As your anticipated harvest time approaches, keep watering minimal: the topsoil should not be really wet, or the bulbs may mold, or at least stain.

As harvest really draws nigh, the leaves will start turning from green to brown. Opinions vary about exactly when to strike, but expert consensus sems to be soon after half or so of the leaves have gone brown. Do not wait for most or all of the leaves to go brown.

Harvest by simply taking the bulbs out of the ground. Do not leave freshly dug bulbs in direct sunlight for more than a very few minutes--they will more or less cook. Hang dug bulbs somewhere indoors and let them cure--two or three weeks is probably what that will take in our climate. When curing is satisfactorily complete, the neck of the plant can be cut about ½ inch above the bulb without any moisture showing (if you try it and detect moisture, curing is not complete). Cured garlics can be neck- and root-trimmed and stored in hanging net bags (like onions).


More

Relevant Links

Besides any links presented above on this page, the following ought to be especially helpful:


Odds and Ends

Biology

Modern garlics are of only two species: Allium ophioscorodon, the "hardnecks", which produce a flower stalk as did their wild ancestor; and A. sativum, the softnecks, which usually do not produce a flower stalk.

Hardnecks, left to their own devices, will produce small bulbils at the ends of their stalks (reminiscent of Egyptian onions) and little bulb below ground; they must have the the flower stalk removed to bulb up properly. Softnecks are non-bolting garlics that freely produce underground bulbs instead of flowers. (This simplified view has complicating exceptions.)

The Allium genus is part of the Liliaceae, the lily family--which includes onions, leeks, and asparagus among its more useful edible members.


History

Let's not re-invent the wheel: this USDA site (also linked above) covers the ground.


Envoi

"Goot eeevening; I am Count Dracula--velcome to my castle."

"Buddy, you're sick."





Return to the top of this page.


--Site Directory--

Search this site, or the web
Google
  Web growingtaste.com   

(What do you know about OmniKnow?)

Since you're growing your own vegetables and fruits, shouldn't you be cooking them in the best way possible?
Visit The Induction Site to find out what that best way is!

owl logo This site is one of The Owlcroft Company family of web sites. Please click on the link (or the owl) to see a menu of our other diverse user-friendly, helpful sites.       Pair Networks logo Like all our sites, this one is hosted at the highly regarded Pair Networks, whom we strongly recommend. We invite you to click on the Pair link (or their logo) for more information on getting your site or sites hosted on a first-class service.

Click here to send us email.

And why not look in at Is it a blog yet?

So that you need not be a victim of the "Browser Wars," we have taken the trouble to assure that
this web page is 100% compliant with the World Wide Web Consortium's
XHTML Protocol v1.0 (Transitional).
You can click on the logo below to test this page!



Not every browser renders proper HTML correctly (Internet Explorer famously does not);
so, if your browser experiences any difficulties with this page (or, really, even if it doesn't),

(It's free!)

You loaded this page on Tuesday, 8 July 2008, at 23:54 EDT.;
it was last modified on Monday, 14 May 2007, at 17:04 EDT.

All content copyright ©1999 - 2008 by The Owlcroft Company