Garlic from Texas to Virginia
Jul 12, 2023 11:05:50 GMT -6
macmex, heavyhitterokra, and 3 more like this
Post by chrysanthemum on Jul 12, 2023 11:05:50 GMT -6
I attempted to grow garlic several times in Texas without any very great success. The last time I even bought a “Heat Tolerant Sampler” or some such name from a farm in the southwest. The sampler contained four varieties: two soft necks called Viola Francese and Blanco Spagnolo, a hardneck/Turban called Shilla, and a Creole called Labera Purple. I planted those in the fall of 2021, and it was then that we began our long drought that lasted well beyond garlic harvest. They started out quite well, but it was New Year’s weekend when we had some roller coaster weather than went from eighty degrees to twenty four degrees in one day, and the tops froze back. They did grow after that in the spring, but then the one hundred degree days started in May and put a stop to their growth. I harvested some of all four varieties, but once the drought of 2022 had reached exceptional levels and showed no sign of improving in the fall, I decided not to plant them.
Instead I mailed the little bulbs and rounds I had harvested to my mother in Virginia, and she planted them for me. I was too late arriving up here this summer to see them in the garden, but she harvested a much better crop than I did. Some of the heads are still small because she wasn’t working with the strongest stock, but she has definitely improved on what I gave her. We’ll save the larger cloves for replanting.
She has the garlic braided and hanging on stand she built for hanging baskets some years back. The smaller heads behind the post are the Labera Purple, but some at the bottom have some better size. Then on the other side of the post at middle height is the Viola Francese. Up high on the right is the Blanco Spagnolo which seems to have done the best. In front down low is the Shilla.
I’ll be interested in sampling some smaller cloves to see if I can discern any difference in flavor. I doubt I’ll be able to, but we’ll see.
Instead I mailed the little bulbs and rounds I had harvested to my mother in Virginia, and she planted them for me. I was too late arriving up here this summer to see them in the garden, but she harvested a much better crop than I did. Some of the heads are still small because she wasn’t working with the strongest stock, but she has definitely improved on what I gave her. We’ll save the larger cloves for replanting.
She has the garlic braided and hanging on stand she built for hanging baskets some years back. The smaller heads behind the post are the Labera Purple, but some at the bottom have some better size. Then on the other side of the post at middle height is the Viola Francese. Up high on the right is the Blanco Spagnolo which seems to have done the best. In front down low is the Shilla.
I’ll be interested in sampling some smaller cloves to see if I can discern any difference in flavor. I doubt I’ll be able to, but we’ll see.
