Garlic

[smurfy]

I planted mine weekend before MEA..... then weekend after I covered them with grass clippings and leaves.

[SkunkedAgain]

How is everyone's garlic looking this season? I've had one stalk bit off near the base and one trampled by a 2 year old, otherwise I've got a lot of curly scapes about to be clipped off.

[pushbutton]

Looking really good and going to cut a few soon as well. Anyone have any favorite things to do/recipes for them? Think am going to try a scape pesto this year.....

[Big-Al]

I have made pesto and just about anything else that you would use garlic for. They are really great. One thing I would not recommend though is to freeze them unless you want everything in your freezer to be permeated with the garlic smell.

My garlic seems to be doing amazingly well even though it has been totally saturated the entire growing season. I am getting some tip yellowing on the leaves and if the monsoons continue I doubt it will turn out very well. I am just short of the scape period up here in the northern part of the state.

[SkunkedAgain]

Garlic loves water so they probably tolerate all of the rain better than most plants. Hopefully this means healthy heads.

I usually put the scapes in a ziplock in my fridge and they last for months. I usually just chop of slices when cooking but have made pesto before. From experience, it is SUPER garlicy if you eat it the night that you make it. I believe that they recommend letting the pesto mellow for 3-5 days before using. My wife can't stand that much garlic, and it oozes out of my pores afterwards....I call it the garlic sauna.

[YiGGiN4SLoBS]

Looking really good and going to cut a few soon as well. Anyone have any favorite things to do/recipes for them? Think am going to try a scape pesto this year.....

I sometimes eat garlic plain. I love the smell of the fingers when I'm done chopping garlic or cooking with it.

I often wonder if you went on a strict diet of garlic for a month or two if that would be a better cure for certain diseases like cancer. I would rather eat nothing but garlic for a month straight then have chemo. Sorry, just rambling

[delcecchi]

I sometimes eat garlic plain. I love the smell of the fingers when I'm done chopping garlic or cooking with it.

I often wonder if you went on a strict diet of garlic for a month or two if that would be a better cure for certain diseases like cancer. I would rather eat nothing but garlic for a month straight then have chemo. Sorry, just rambling

[SkunkedAgain]

Pulled my garlic on Sunday and was disappointed. Most of my heads were on the small side despite my best efforts this summer to keep weeds at bay. I think that I'm going to mix in some milorganite this fall before planting. Anyone have good luck with the stuff?

[Big-Al]

I have two plots of garlic and I am quite surprised that it is as good as it is. It sat in standing water for a considerable time this spring and I thought for sure it would be a total loss. The one plot that was a bit better drained has pretty descent bulbs. It is about 50/50 on German red and white porcelain. The other is straight German red and they are a lot smaller. I think I will harvest in a week or two.

On a side note you mentioned that you "pulled" your garlic. The garlic will cure better if all the roots are left attached and you will lose a fair bit if you pull it instead of digging it.

[pushbutton]

Harvested mine with pretty mixed results. About a quarter was beautiful, another 1/4 decent, and the other half is pretty lame?!?!? Had not planted it in years and because of you guys keeping this thread roll was excited to try it again. Don't know if I should thank or curse you two Ended up with three pints of fabulous scape pesto though, and suppose that alone, was worth it......

[SkunkedAgain]

I dug mine up - it was just the choice of words.

I definitely made some awesome pesto, still have lots of scapes left for more, and will still enjoy my garlic. Unfortunately none of my cloves are good enough for replanting so I'll have to order new garlic off of the internet.

[pushbutton]

Unfortunately none of my cloves are good enough for replanting so I'll have to order new garlic off of the internet.

Is there kind of a rule of thumb for bulb/clove size and planting? Meaning ....do not plant small cloves?

[Big-Al]

I was taught by folks that know much more than I do about garlic to plant the biggest and best bulbs. Last year I had to purchase bulbs to supplement the meager amount of good bulbs I had.

[pushbutton]

Just planted everything I had last year, big or small, and was wondering if that was why I had such variable results. Guess it will be go big or go home in a few months at planting time. Saw at the local farmers market a dude with some biggn's and suppose will have to buy some more.

Saw your comment about the weeds, Skunked. Do not know if it a no no....but mulched mine after they were established and, after which, it was rather easy to stay on top of them.

[SkunkedAgain]

The bigger the garlic clove that you plant, the bigger the bulb you'll get upon harvest - everything else equal. So yes, you do want to plant the biggest cloves.

I did put a thicker layer of mulch on than usual this season, but there were still lots of weeds to keep up with. I must have gotten seeded straw last fall by mistake.

[pushbutton]

Ok, so how about storage? Had them hanging in a hot garage for a few weeks. Started thinking it might be too warm, and recently put them in the driest cool place I have So longer in the garage and have garlic with a hint of gas, or leftover fireworks with a hint if garlic?

[dairyman]

I harvested my garlic the other day-----I plant the "Music" variety and have been really satisfied with it. I plant it in the fall and mulch it with chopped leaves from my yard. It pretty much carries it the next year with very little weeding required. I dug up 130+ bulbs with a few 3 inches in dia or more. Most of them would be graded med to large. Medium being anything between 2-2.5 inches in dia and the large greater then 2.5 inches. Prior to harvest we cut the top of the scapes off-----the little seed bulbettes on the top and chop them,stick them in the freezer and use them

during the winter,they're great

[th64]

ate some of my garlic Sun. good stuff-think mine is German White. We went to the Garlic Fest in Hutchingson-bought a variety pack so I could try new varieties, ate garlic ice cream, not for me

yuck! Garlic will stay in the savory category for me I guess.

[Big-Al]

Put my garlic in the ground today. My gut tells me it is too early (when there are still mosquitos flying it seems too early) but the moisture conditions seemed so good I had to go for it. I planted 128 each of German Red and White Porcelain. I backed off quite a bit this year from last after very poor results. The cold and wet and wet spring resulted in a lot of moldy bulbs. I have changed to raised bets this year to hopefully help the issue.

[Big-Al]

So far so good. I have some of the better looking garlic that I have ever had. I weeded, cultivated and lightly fertilized today and then re-mulched.

[smurfy]

checked mine yesterday as well looks about the same but not near that many!!!

[SkunkedAgain]

My scapes really grew out over the past week and are already starting to curl. I've got a real good crop of plants this year - probably about 40 plants in my tiny yard. Mrs. Skunked Again is a little put off that there isn't room for more stuff. Oh well. Most unusually, I found a set of twins growing out of the same clove. Both plants are pretty strong. I'm intrigued and want to see if there will be one bulb or two.

Anybody trimming their scapes already? I've usually waited but was reading that they are more tender early on. I suppose this would also encourage those plants to concentrate on bigger bulbs earlier than if I cut the scapes later. Thoughts?

[Early Riser]

I planted some bulbs this spring (April 4) and the plants are much smaller compared to plants from the bulbs planted in the fall. At this point I don't think I would bother repeating this experiment again. 

[SkunkedAgain]

I did that a few years ago when I forgot to plant in the fall and then we had a very early spring. Even then my garlic was small. Garlic actually needs the cold treatment over winter to grow to its fullest potential.

I cut my scapes yesterday afternoon. There was garlic juice everywhere. Good stuff.

[Big-Al]

Had a pretty good harvest of garlic this year.  I grew two varieties, White Porcelain and German Red.  I got good size bulbs.  I finally got next year's crop planted yesterday.  This was at least a couple weeks later than I would normally plant but the soggy soil conditions would not allow me to plant sooner.  And the rain today would have been the end to the possibility of planting any more this year.  Hopefully the ground is still warm enough to get it the start it needs.