Lining them up :)

If the weather holds as predicted, I hope to get my garlic in this week as well. Varieties:
Bogatyr
Carpati
Estonian Red
Georgian Fire
Kettle River Giant
Korean Mad Dog
Martin's Heirloom
Persian Star
Pskem
Purple Cauldron
Purple Italian
Ron's Single Center (a.k.a. Trueheart)
Simoneti
Spanish Roja
Transylvanian

Also some bulbils which I hope will be Special Idaho, an heirloom garlic I lost during the 2012 Midwest aster yellows outbreak. It was one of my two favorite garlics (along with Ron's).

Other alliums which will be Fall planted are Pearlzweibel (Pearl onion), two heirloom shallots, 5 heirloom walking onions, and Allium moly. The A. moly is an ornamental allium which will be tested for its performance under garden cultivation, and for its edible qualities... the flowers are delicious, I'll be testing the bulbs for use as pearl onions.

Haven't planted so much as a clove yet, but got out and started to prep the soil yesterday. Will try to get the softnecks in today &/or tomorrow and the hardy har hars towards the end of next month.

Have grown as many as seven varieties at one time, but think it is better for me to concentrate on four or five varieties that I have a market for and which do the best in my climate.

Zeedman, that is an impressive list of garlic!

Anyway, Thai fire is already sprouting, as well as Ontario purple trillium and Shantung purple.

Pic is of Thai Fire taken just this morning.

Gee !! I just planted some today.
I bought the seeds from farmers market. They were really very nice n big n tasty. So I figure they must have bene grown locally too. So , when should I expect to harvest them (haha).
I have yet to transplant my onions from pots to bed. We have beautiful ONION weather.

Two weeks after planting. They grow fast! Then goes into 'hibernation' during the winter.
Pic is of Thai fire (Turban/Asiatic)

Report:

I planted my garligs on Sept. 28. Today I noticed some of them poking out. That's been about two weeks. It has been rainy and cool all along. But the timing seems to be right. Thanks to Mark(madroneb) We have a month to our first frost.

Planted some the same time as you, seysonn, and when I went out a couple of days ago they were starting to come up, too! Let the weeding begin.

Got mine in late this year, and believe me I was nervous. Ground was so dry it was impossible to dig, three days of rain and then one clear, my day to plant. The soil moisture was perfect for planting, and the next two days it rained. Over the years I have grown, evaluated and eliminated many varieties. I am down to:

German Extra Hardy
Russian Giant
Asian Tempest
Leningrad
Schumacher
Up North

The last two came to me from friends with no known history, only a bit of provenance. All have been selected for their performance, flavor and storage length. In my cellar, I can have fresh garlic until Mid April.

Steve

Mine are in the ground- here's what I planted:

Spanish Roja
Chesnok Red
Silver Rose
Vietnamese Red

I did a taste test of each-- by far the Vietnamese was the best to eat raw-- much milder and smoother than the rest. But I'm sure mostly garlic gets cooked! Just was fun to try them.

Now hoping that the week of hard freeze coming up here in Wisconsin doesn't sabotage them. They're heavily mulched under straw.

"Now hoping that the week of hard freeze coming up here in Wisconsin doesn't sabotage them."

Should be no problem. It is usually the frost heave, not the freezing, that kills them. I went out in November with a cordless drill & auger bit one year, to dig through the frost & plant in the holes. I planted a little deeper than normal, but the garlic next year was just as good as when planted earlier. Planted deep (in well drained soil) and mulched heavily, they should do well.

Got all mine in too, 450 total; my job was nice enough to give me a day off, and I finished up just before the rains came in.

Krasnodar Red double clove. Guess I'll just leave them as is.

I think it's OK to have lots of cloves together as long as there's enough space for bulbs to form and room for leaves to get sun.

I left in some entire cloves from last year so they can become clumps of bulbs. They won't be as big as singular planted cloves, but should still reach a decent size.

Back in PNW ( Oregan, Washington) It has bee freaking cold. Some places it is down to teens.
Will the garlics be affected by this weather? Probably the ground in beds is solid frozen to a good depth where the roots are. This, dry cold, is worse than snow. Next week it is going to get back to normal.

I find that if garlic is well mulched with leave, straw, or whatever you have that is biodegradable, it will keep the garlic happy, and they should emerge with no problem which usually happens by around mid March around here.

I don't see how mulching can be effective when the temps have been under freezing for days and the ground is solidly frozen.
Beside mine have already tops of about 6". But from what I gather and what ZEEDMAN said, it should be ok.
Now the temps are back to normal. Day highs have climbed above freezing mark. I drink to that.

Everyday I seem to do something stupid.

Every couple of years I seem to bury myself deep for a season.

Third year growing garlic but only the second playing with different cultivars. Each stake = a different garlic ... and this is most of Garlic Patch #1 ;)

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The rain continues here so have been unable to finish planting ... but should easily end up trialing better than 110.

Haven't been back to Garlic Patch #2 yet due to the rains but have 2 rows planted in the upper bed ...

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"Let the weeding begin" indeed ... open to tips/suggestions!

Just an experiment ... that has probably already gotten out of hand :(

Wow; first I would plant the same cultivars 3 across. What if the center garlic matures first?
As for weeds you should mulch, if not for freezing for weed control.
Here in the PNW if you can't plant when it's raining, you may never get the garlic planted.

By rain, I mean 6" in the last 10 days ...a bit much for walking through GA red clay tilled 8" deep ;)

What kind of mulch? I'm thinking of pine needles and bark fines ... have a chunk of leaves but this is going to get into purchased stuff. Wheat straw tends to be seedy?

Planted thus far ( ranging from 2 bulbs totaling 9 cloves to 1 lb with 50-70 - still have some 50 lbs saved from this last season so rain = no opportunity for additional ground preparation. Today was mostly clear and I'll set more out tomorrow) =

Aglio Blanco
Ajo Rojo
Aktyubinsk
Andidzhanski
Assisi
Azataza
Basque
Blanak
Blossom
Bogatyr
Brown Saxon
Burgundy
Bzenec
Carpathian
Chaparsky
Chets Italian
Chinese Pink
Chinese Purple
Chopaka Mountain
Chrysalis Purple
Colorado Black
Creole Red
Dubna(Standard)
DX-127
Georgian Crystal
Georgian Fire
German Brown
German Extra Hardy
Giuseppe
Godfather's Italian
Ididared
Inchelium Red
Isarael
Island Rocambole
Island Star
Killarney Red
Korean Red
Krasnador Red
Krasnador White
LK Mann
Machashi
Martin's Heirloom
Merrifield
Metechi
Music
Native Creole
Nootka Rose
Northe #3
Novo Troitzk
Okanogan Blue
Oregon Blue
Persian Star
Phillips
PI 493116
Pioneer
Placid Turban
Polish Hardneck
Pskem
Purple Glazer
Red Czar
Red Grain
Red Janice
Red Rezan
Red Toch
Rogue River Red
Rosewood
Russian Giant
Russian Red
Shan Tung Purple
Shatili
Simoneti
Skuri
Skuri #2
Spanish Roja
Susanville
Thai Purple
Uzbek
Vekak
Walla Walla
Xian

I tend to plant early, 9-27. Cozy, you seem to be worse than me. I planted around 14,000 cloves.
Blossom
Thai fire
Thai purple
Tzan
Lotus
Red Janice
I red
Agio rossa
Italian lociano
Island star
Simonetti
Chinese purple
Uzbek turban
Ajo rojo
Morado gigante
Greek acropolis
Lorz Italian
Mexican red silver
Russian inferno
Red toch
Korean mountain
Cuban purple
Creole red
Morracan creole
Burgundy
Native creole
Pescadaro red
Spanish benette
Thermadrone
Transylvania
Madrid
Lochanto
Elephant

Picture of several rows mulched with pine needles which do ok. I mulch to prevent weeds.

Wow, I think I hurt my neck. The garlic fumes must be getting strong, last thing I remember was seeing garlic rows leading up into the sky... ;-)

Cozy & Johnnp, nice lists. I take it that you are garlic farmers? "Chrysalis Purple" is on my 'want' list, I would be interested in a trade if it does well.

Zeedman, if you mean Chinese purple, would be ok with a trade. Should do well, did ok last year. Will not be ready till middle to end of June. Building up my seed stock but would be willing to trade. Let me know what you have. I am sure we could work out something to our mutual benefit. Johnnp

"Cozy & Johnnp, nice lists. I take it that you are garlic farmers?"

Not me .. just found out that the deer and rabbits will let it be ... perhaps just getting even with them ;)

I think that he really meant Chrysalis Purple ...

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And it is in the ground ...looks like some good trades may be possible ;) Current planted list is at 97 and = ...

Aglio Blanco
Ajo Rojo
Aktyubinsk
Andidzhanski
Assisi
Azataza
Basque
Bavarian
Blanak
Blossom
Bogatyr
Brown Saxon
Burgundy
Bzenec
Carpathian
Chaparsky
Chets Italian
Chengdu
China Stripe
Chinese Pink
Chinese Purple
Chopaka Mountain
Chrysalis Purple
Colorado Black
Creole Red
Dubna(Standard)
DX-127
Ferganskij
Georgian Crystal
Georgian Fire
German Brown
German Extra Hardy
German Red
Giuseppe
Godfather's Italian
Ididared
Inchelium Red
Isarael
Island Rocambole
Island Star
Khabar
Killarney Red
Korean Red
Krasnador Red
Krasnador White
Kuty
LK Mann
Machashi
Maiskij
Martin's
Merrifield
Metechi
Mexican Red Silver
Mild French
Music
Native Creole
Nootka Rose
Northe
Northe #3
Novo Troitzk
Okanogan Blue
Oregon Blue
Penasco Blue
Persian Star
Phillips
PI 493116
Pioneer
Placid Turban
Polish Hardneck
Portuguese Early
Pskem
Purple Glazer
Red Czar
Red Grain
Red Janice
Red Rezan
Red Toch
Rogue River Red
Rose du Var
Rosewood
Russian Giant
Russian Red
Shan Tung Purple
Shatili
Sicilian Silver
Simoneti
Skuri
Skuri #2
Spanish Roja
Susanville
Thai Purple
Thermadrone
Uzbek
Vekak
Walla Walla
Yugoslavian
Xian

More cometh soon.

"Cozy & Johnnp, nice lists. I take it that you are garlic farmers?" No, sell some at local farmers markets to cover expenses. Hobby that exploded!!! Cozy, great list didn't notice the Chrysalis Purple Have not heard of it before. In fact you have several varieties I am not familiar with. Cannot grow many of the varieties you do this far south. I am still experimenting. Keep in touch.

"Cannot grow many of the varieties you do this far south. I am still experimenting."

Me too - I have not grown most of them yet either ;) Planting is one thing, harvesting another. Part of this experiment is seeing what will work here vs what is considered to work here.

Added Early Italian, Kettle River Giant and Elephant to the ground today ( all saved from last year) ... making it 100 so far! Pretty much down to 12 more and then I can back up to weeding and mulching ( appreciate the confirmation of pine needles working).

Got to thinking about the garlic farm and farmers market comments as I surely can not keep growing, multiplying, trialing more each year. Any tips/thoughts on this would be appreciated.

Patch 2 pic ... was too muddy and I'll probably regret it ... but 2 more inches of rain is forecast for the night and it has set in.

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Sounds like I am one step ahead of you. 3 years ago started to grow large amounts, if I recall correctly I planted around 6,000 cloves, 54 varieties. Down to 33 varieties,14.000 cloves. Several of those I probably need to discontinue but I want them to do well and it is hard to give up. Still trying to establish what ones more consistent trying to get down to 20. Did ok at farmers market, its fun interacting with folks, no competition. Next summer going into larger markets, from what others tell me no one sells garlic in the markets. Do not know about your area, my wife and I enjoy the interaction with customers and other vendors, it is only 1/2 day once a week. We only did it for 8 weeks. I keep the largest bulbs for seed and sell the food grade. Bulbs 1 1/4 inch and smaller I roast and freeze for cooking. Pine needles work for me, a little work but it is free. They work well, some garlic "gurus" don't advise it but I am not paying for mulch. I am experimenting with growing sunn hemp and sorghum-sudan grass before planting to use as a mulch. I want to cut down on amount of pine needles using, I don't want to rob the trees of all of their nutrition. Best to apply before garlic sprouts or should I say easier. If I can share any other info, ask!!! John

Lost my entire crop in the aster yellows outbreak of 2012. Have been rebuilding by acquiring and planting bulbils of varieties, which is a long term proposition but a safer strategy for me. With the increasing garlic disease issues out there I no longer trust the acquisition of untested or uncertified cloved planting stock. My soil is clean, my inventory is clean, and I have become obsessed about keeping things that way.

Another reason I do not really mind growing from bulbils is that I found it takes around five years for a newly acquired variety to properly acclimate to my local growing conditions and soil type, and five years is plenty time to grow out a full size cloved bulb from a bulbil. I have also found that acclimation occurs a bit faster when growing from bulbils. Those little plants know how to adapt quickly compared to cloves from mature bulbs.

I now have several strategies set up to hopefully protect myself from a similar calamity ever happening again. New acquisitions are grown in isolation off-site until proven safe, I have learned how to preserve the viability of bulbils long term so I can keep an inventory for emergency planting as a backup, and I have an arrangement with another grower a hundred miles from me who grows small amounts of my varieties for me for backup stock.

My garlic planting season starts the second half of October and goes until planting is completed or weather conditions stop me. Planting at this time carries a slight risk from an early winter occurring, but I never, ever, want any of my stock growing above ground before winter freeze up, all I want is root development and a developing shoot that does not penetrate the soil surface. This gives me the best garlic. This year I planted approximately 1000 cloves, 1000 second year rounds, and 12,000 bulbils. At least I am on my way back, but still have a couple years to go to reach my goal of planting 25,000 cloves.

At time of writing it is minus14 degrees F outside and the garlic beds are all safely nestled under a 14 inch blanket of snow. For the first time in two years I am happy and excited about my garlic and looking forward to what the next season will bring. :-)

I find an increasingly annoying garlic growing issue to be the confusion due to duplicate names for the same varieties out there in the garlic world. It is for just this reason I have what may turn out to be duplicates on my list because they were acquired from different sources and were named differently. I feel my only realistic option is to treat them as different varieties until proven otherwise. The main example I have is German Extra Hardy, which is also known as German White, Northern White, and German Stiffneck.

It is all experimental to me right now, I have been willingly accepting anything that has been offered to me. Some types/varieties I have are not really meant for my area but it will be interesting to see how they do. My thanks to the generous folks who have helped me out by growing out and sending bulbils, I would not be where I am without their kindness and I hope to repay them some day or at least pay it forward.

I lost many varieties that I have yet to reacquire, most of them were not that critical to me so it does not matter too much. What I really miss is my rocambole collection, many of which I have yet to reacquire. If anyone wants to trade bulbils next year, lets talk. I will not have a lot of varieties available yet, but what I have will be top notch quality and clean.

Armenian Red
Asian Tempest
Assissi
Bai Pi Suan
Bavarian
Belarus
Blanak
Carpathian
Castro Red
Choparsky
Colorado Black
Estonian Red
Georgian Fire
German Brown
German Extra Hardy
German Red
German White
Inchellium Red
Japanese
Korean Hot
Martins Heirloom
Metechi
Montana Giant
Northern White
Ontario Giant
Polish Hardneck
Pyong Vang
Red Grain
Russian Inferno
Russian Red
Siberian
Spanish Morado
Spanish Roja
Spanish Roja Strain #2
Transylvanian
Xian
Unknown Purple Stripe (local feral)

Awesome list of garlic there cozy and johnnp!!!

A little update ... Patch #1

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Some growth is going on ;)

Ended up with 114 different cultivars planted ... still have 5 that I'll try to retain.

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Willing to save ye some bulbils soilent.

That's one beautiful garlic patch. Oh, to have enough land to do such a project... you are truly fortunate. I figure I'll end up with maybe 30 that I'll grow every year - then stop.

" With the increasing garlic disease issues out there I no longer trust the acquisition of untested or uncertified cloved planting stock." (Soilent_green)

I feel the same way, although my precautions have not been as extensive as yours. Garlic Bloat Nematode continues to spread. I've tried to rebuild my collection with garlic from outside infected areas, and from those with established collections... but the risk of infection will only grow as garlic is traded across the country. If all the additional stock I bring in this year is good, I won't risk bringing in any new stock from that point on.

Nice garlic pics there, cozy!
Here's an update on how my Thai Fire is doing. Looked like they had a 'growth spurt' these past couple of weeks!(Pic taken this afternoon.)

It has been almost a month and I never did get them mulched.

Some of the early leaves ( mainly turbans) are showing the fact that they did see 4 degrees but overall, it's still interesting.

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I've found that garlic will often be smothered by the fall leaves applied from teh fall, and may just never come up, or rot away if I don't pull off those layer of leaves to allow them to get sunlight.

Here's a picture showing them a day after pulling away the leaves. Of course they will green up in 2-3 days.

Scapes are definitely poking out! Yay!
(Ontario Purple Trillium)
Scapes are also out on my Pskems.

"... I have learned how to preserve the viability of bulbils long term so I can keep an inventory for emergency planting as a backup..."

Re-reading this thread, I realized that I initially missed the significance of that comment. It's not my fault, all those garlic lists made me dizzy. ;-) Soilent_green, if you are still out there, could you provide more detail on your system of long-term bulbil preservation? That's something I want to emulate with my own collection.

Early Italian Purple and German Red are showing scapes here, too!

"Re-reading this thread, I realized that I initially missed the significance of that comment."

As did I and would appreciate the info.

Got to play a bit today before the rain set in ... Patch #1 is starting to look more like a corn patch ;)

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Patch #2 is trying to catch up ...

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Patch #2 is limited to the first 2 beds from the left ... next bed over is onions and then tater patch #2.

Will most likely never do this again ... but, for now, it seems pretty .... and keeps me busy.

Hi cozy, here are pics. A little ahead of you.
Already have scapes. Will be digging up in 4 to 6 weeks.
Everything looks good. Johnnp

Scapes starting to curl. Pic taken this afternoon. (Ontario Purple Trillium-rocambole)

All is looking GOOD - Congrats!!!

No scapes here yet ... but the yellow ( of which I was starting to get concerned about) has disappeared!

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Though I said that I may never do this again, I have to admit that I have been stewing on the 8 acres of sandy bottom land behind the house and pondering what those rows might look like ....

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Have to admit that I am a fickle one .... and a chunk depends upon which way the winds blow.

With all you Southerners' garlic showing scapes, I am just pleased enough to find that all the garlic varieties I planted last fall are all just showing up, and in nice uniform stands too. Actually some of them are starting to stretch already even up here in the North Country Fair. There is certainly a difference in growth habits, too.

Time to eat some yummy treats! :)

Soilent_green, I see you posted on the "rounds" thread - welcome back!

If you are still out there, could you give more specifics on the bulbil storage techniques you referred to earlier in this thread? I am letting at least one scape from every hard neck variety mature, and would like to keep the bulbils as backups in case the clove-planted crop for a particular variety is lost due to weather or disease. Not like that ever happens. ;-)