Assuming you live where there's an actual winter, garlic is best planted in
the fall, at the same time as tulips & other spring flowering bulbs. The
following year, it'll start growing. You're supposed to remove the
"scapes" - the flowers. When the stalks turn brown, harvest the garlic.
I don't have advice on the variety.
any hardneck variety. softneck varieties are substantially worse.
Anyway, it is too late for this year, they would come up miserably if
planted now.
I got my hardneck from Territorial Seeds, but I also got bulbs from the
farmer market that perform well. Of course, one needs garlic seed only
once, it is economically and agronomically advantageous to replant the
cloves of the largest bulbs.
Based on the weather here lately (upstate NY), I'm beginning to think I need
to learn how people garden in N. Carolina. My parsley and sage are growing
again. It's January. This is not right.
"Worse" in what way? They are harder to peel and have smaller cloves.
The hardnecks are bigger, but the softnecks store longer.
I grow both hard and softneck varieties. I think the softnecks are 'Polish
White' but I've been replanting for years.
I know I bought 'Music' and 'Bavarian Red' hardnecks and maybe another
variety. I think over the years I've tried to plant my best 'redder'
hardnecks along with the best of the whiter ones.
This year, here, maybe you could chance it. The ground hasn't frozen.
I've got garlic greens coming up already. Yesterday someone mentioned
thatthe pussywillows are blooming in her yard and buds are swelling
on the red and silver maples!
--
Pat in Plymouth MI ('someplace.net' is comcast)
Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced.
On Fri, 05 Jan 2007 06:26:12 -0600, snipped-for-privacy@someplace.net.net (Pat
Kiewicz) wrote:
<snipped hard neck vs soft neck discussion>
I am new to garlic, in my second year. I put in 400 plants, all hard
neck, as a trial and now half of them are already up, just like yours.
Do you think that the early sprouting will have any effect on the crop
quality?
John
They'll be fine. Some bulbs get beat up badly when their sprouts are exposed
to frost. Others laugh at the punishment, die back, and return later.
Crocuses are a good example of this.
I plant mine at the end of August, through the middle of September. I
bought 3 cloves of elephant garlic, because I like the milder garlic. Now I
raise about 75 heads of garlic a year.
It comes up the year you plant it, winter comes, and it lives through it.
In about July the next year it starts dying back. I dig it shortly after
that happens. I Cut the stems back to about 3 inches, wash them off, and
let them set somewhere dry in the shade where the air can reach it for 10 to
15 days (on my deck or in the garage normally).
Then I put it downstairs where it is cool until Sept. I brake as much apart
as I need to plant as many big cloves as I have room for to restart the
cycle, and use the little cloves. The rest stays in the basement till I use
it or give it away.
Dwayne
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