I have not tried any soft neck varieties. So far for hardnecks I have had good luck with Music, Duganski and Italian Easy Peel. The other varieties I have tried have not done as well yet but I think it was due to cutworms and a few other problems on my end. I am in mountains east of Albuquerque but I think I have a higher elevation.

One trick is to watch the weather and pull the garlic before the rains start in July (if they do). I have unfortunately gotten very little so far this monsoon and it is very, very depressing.

Thank you for your response. I have also heard good things about Music which seems to do well just about everywhere. I hadn't heard about Duganski or Italian Easy Peel.

We've had a surprising amount of rain this past month in Albuquerque (we're up against the mountains too), so the garden is looking good. The only vegetables we have are 6 tomato plants, but they are all heavy with tomatoes. I'm finding gardening in this area very challenging - the heavy clay, the lack of rain.

Cheryl

Cheryl,
Greetings from a fellow New Mexican. Like you I am looking for good varieties of garlic to grow here in Albq. I would be interested if you have found any good candidates.
Steve

Hi Steve,

I found Chispas Farms in SW Albuquerque. They sell at local farmers markets. They grow garlic for the Seed Savers Exchange, and according to the person I talked to (sorry, I don't recall her name) they grow ALL the 400+ varieties of garlic in existence! They sell a lot at the farmers markets, but have more at their farm.

I also found Boxcar farm near Taos. They referred me to Chispas. They also said you could grow any garlic in Abq, more so than they can.

I have several different kinds to try - I ordered two samplers from ForeverYong farm in AZ, one pound of mixed creoles and one pound of mixed softnecks. I also got 3 different lots of garlic originally from Boxcar but sold by wegrowgarlic.com. I have Ayacucho, Chamisal and K's Backyard. Finally, I got Vekak and Russian Red from the farmers market.

So I have a lot to try, and I still haven't really explored what Chispas has - they sell as it is ready, so it's hit and miss if you're looking for something specific. Of the different suppliers so far, ForeverYong (John Rueb) sent me the biggest bulbs in absolutely pristine condition.

What are your recommendation? Have you experimented with any varieties yet?

Cheryl

Cheryl I just found this post. I'm in extreme SW KS. Not in the mountains but have the heat, wind and dry conditions. I dug about 60-70% of my garlic over the last two days. I grew the 3 NM varieties you grew along with Santa Fe Rocomble. I'm originally from NM so like to grow varieties from there. And our climates are similar enough that usually what grows there does well here. We've been in a 4 year drought and have had constant wind all year. Had a late spring and the wind kept blowing tumble weeds in which caused some issues with the garlic. I tried to keep them removed but left some for 7-10 days in March and when I removed them some of the bulbs died and most that were covered didn't size up well. I purchased the Santa Fe Rocomble from the same place you got your NM varieties. The bulbs I received of it were small. So was surprised today when I dug it and the bulbs were nice and large. Chamisal Wild did well last year but it was one that was affected by the tumble weeds so didn't do as well this year. K's Backyard produced some nice bulbs. Ayacucho was covered by the tumble weeds. Lost several bulbs of it and most of the rest didn't size up well. I got two nice bulbs that wasn't covered and have 2-3 still to dig. I just hope I can get a few good cloves so I can grow it again. After it all dries I will cut the roots off and take notes and know more about what did well. I will try to remember to come back and list what did well. Jay

Jay,

I've just started to harvest. This was our first time growing garlic, and we're tickled at digging the bulbs up. I don't think we lost a lot, although some of the bulbs are small, not bigger than a single large clove.

So far we have several bulbs of Chamisal Wild, a few Native Creole, a couple of Ayacucho, Viola Francese, Ajo Rojo and several Unknown (this is what you get when you leave your husband with a box of garlic to plant).

There are still a lot of K's Backyard, more Ayacucho, Red Roch, Vekak, Ajo Rodo, Creole Purple, Rose du Lautrec, Blanco Piacenza. I don't know how we'll sort these out since DH didn't mark them clearly.

The bulbs are small, at least compared with supermarket bulbs. I'm looking forward to tasting the different varieties to decide what we'll plant this year.

I was told that you can grow any garlic in Albuquerque, so I guess you should too. I hope you post notes on how your garlic did, and I'll do the same.

Cheryl