Post by macmex on Dec 2, 2018 6:20:17 GMT -6
Most folk that I know say that garlic should be planted in the fall. Here in our part of Oklahoma, that usually means sometime in October. I rarely manage to meet that deadline. However, I generally meet with success, when growing garlic. I thought I'd share just a few thoughts on this.
First of all: getting garlic in, in a timely manner, generally means that one will get a better harvest (larger and more numerous cloves of garlic). Yet, I have planted garlic as late as February and gotten a usable harvest. I recommend, that if you haven't gotten any planted yet, you might just consider it. If the ground can be worked, chances are you can plant garlic. Also, even if you planted as late as May or June, though you undoubtedly would not get a harvest, as its "internal clock" tells it to make bulbs at that time, still, that garlic would survive and go on to produce next season.
This is a photo of elephant garlic, which I dug in July. Elephant garlic, though technically more a leek than garlic, looks like giant garlic and tastes like a mild garlic. It grows like garlic, so, I'll call it garlic! I've been growing elephant garlic for at least 7 years and am getting more and more fond of it. Apart from being easy to grow, like any other garlic, elephant garlic is really easy to harvest (find). When its ready to harvest it leaves a stout dry stalk, standing as a marker, right where you need to dig. If you don't get it before the stalk decays and disapears, then you can find it because that stalk leaves a hole right above the bulb. If you miss that window of opportunity, then it will sprout in early fall and you can transplant it to a new patch, or leave it to produce in the coming year. Not breaking the cloves apart for replanting simply makes it so that next year's cloves are smaller than they would have been. But, hey! They'll still be at least four or five times the size of regular garlic cloves!
Another thing I like about elephant garlic is that I never have to guess what variety I'm looking at. There's only one elephant garlic. Most all the other varieties I grow have gotten mixed together, so that I'm never quite sure what I'm looking at.
Elephant garlic flower heads look like this. They're quite large. Also, they never make scapes or seed. I've actually heard of people who grew elephant garlic for years as an ornamental, without realizing that it was edible!
The other kind of garlic I really like is hardneck garlic. There are probably many many varieties of hardneck garlic. Most of what I have is a landrace mix from Mexico, which I brought back from the market in Ixmiquilpan, Hidalgo. I call it "Mexican Hardneck." Hardneck has a hard central stem, as opposed to the more common soft neck types, whose central stem is soft and can be braided. Here's a photo of a hardneck garlic head.
Hard or soft "neck" isn't really important to me. But what I love about hardneck garlic is that hardneck garlic flower heads produce "scapes." Scapes are like miniature cloves of garlic. Here's a picture of some "seed heads." They're not actually seed heads, they're topsets.
These heads can be broken apart easily and planted. The first time I planted some, I thought they were onions. I started them indoors in February and planted the little plants outside in March. They actually made ussable heads by July! Here's photo of just one of those heads, broken apart.
After taking that photo I just tossed them over my shoulder to discard them. By September I was finding little garlic plants scattered over the area where I was standing when I took that photo! Any of these hardneck garlic scape heads which fall to the ground will sprout in the fall and produce what appears to be clumps of green grass. Yet one can break them up and plant them, almost the same way one plants a roll of onion plants. It's really easy!
This is one of the things I most like about garlic. It turns into a "beneficial weed" in my garden, growing freely, even where I haven't planted it for some time. During the winter and early spring I often go out and cut some of the garlic tops to add to soups, stews and stir frys.
First of all: getting garlic in, in a timely manner, generally means that one will get a better harvest (larger and more numerous cloves of garlic). Yet, I have planted garlic as late as February and gotten a usable harvest. I recommend, that if you haven't gotten any planted yet, you might just consider it. If the ground can be worked, chances are you can plant garlic. Also, even if you planted as late as May or June, though you undoubtedly would not get a harvest, as its "internal clock" tells it to make bulbs at that time, still, that garlic would survive and go on to produce next season.
This is a photo of elephant garlic, which I dug in July. Elephant garlic, though technically more a leek than garlic, looks like giant garlic and tastes like a mild garlic. It grows like garlic, so, I'll call it garlic! I've been growing elephant garlic for at least 7 years and am getting more and more fond of it. Apart from being easy to grow, like any other garlic, elephant garlic is really easy to harvest (find). When its ready to harvest it leaves a stout dry stalk, standing as a marker, right where you need to dig. If you don't get it before the stalk decays and disapears, then you can find it because that stalk leaves a hole right above the bulb. If you miss that window of opportunity, then it will sprout in early fall and you can transplant it to a new patch, or leave it to produce in the coming year. Not breaking the cloves apart for replanting simply makes it so that next year's cloves are smaller than they would have been. But, hey! They'll still be at least four or five times the size of regular garlic cloves!
Another thing I like about elephant garlic is that I never have to guess what variety I'm looking at. There's only one elephant garlic. Most all the other varieties I grow have gotten mixed together, so that I'm never quite sure what I'm looking at.
Elephant garlic flower heads look like this. They're quite large. Also, they never make scapes or seed. I've actually heard of people who grew elephant garlic for years as an ornamental, without realizing that it was edible!
The other kind of garlic I really like is hardneck garlic. There are probably many many varieties of hardneck garlic. Most of what I have is a landrace mix from Mexico, which I brought back from the market in Ixmiquilpan, Hidalgo. I call it "Mexican Hardneck." Hardneck has a hard central stem, as opposed to the more common soft neck types, whose central stem is soft and can be braided. Here's a photo of a hardneck garlic head.
Hard or soft "neck" isn't really important to me. But what I love about hardneck garlic is that hardneck garlic flower heads produce "scapes." Scapes are like miniature cloves of garlic. Here's a picture of some "seed heads." They're not actually seed heads, they're topsets.
These heads can be broken apart easily and planted. The first time I planted some, I thought they were onions. I started them indoors in February and planted the little plants outside in March. They actually made ussable heads by July! Here's photo of just one of those heads, broken apart.
After taking that photo I just tossed them over my shoulder to discard them. By September I was finding little garlic plants scattered over the area where I was standing when I took that photo! Any of these hardneck garlic scape heads which fall to the ground will sprout in the fall and produce what appears to be clumps of green grass. Yet one can break them up and plant them, almost the same way one plants a roll of onion plants. It's really easy!
This is one of the things I most like about garlic. It turns into a "beneficial weed" in my garden, growing freely, even where I haven't planted it for some time. During the winter and early spring I often go out and cut some of the garlic tops to add to soups, stews and stir frys.
Our coldest night here this winter was 15 below zero. It came so late in the season that several bulbs had already started plumping up for Spring, before the storm arrived. After such a hard freeze, I didn't know if they had survived the harsh conditions. 
Our ground here was frozen hard as a rock for several days. These bulbs were only planted about 2" inches deep, so I know they must have frozen solid, but they seem to be largely unscathed by the experience.
